Babylon 5: Shadows of the Mind
by Virgil Tibbs
Summary: A psi cop, in pursuit of a telepathic serial killer, must also deal with the consequences of her previous service to the Psi Corps.
1. Babylon 5: Shadows of the Mind Part 1

**Babylon 5: Shadows of the Mind**  
  
by Joshua Colson

  
  
**Prologue: 2254 (Six Years Ago)**  
  
Lisa Collins leaned back against the outside wall of the apartment complex, so exhausted she was hardly able to keep her feet. The old fashioned bricks that decorated the building dug into her back, and a strong wind was blowing. Although the fierce rain had died down, she was soaking wet and shivering in the unseasonably cold Boston night. Collins was breathing heavily, but surviving the ambush had been far more taxing mentally than physically: even for a highly trained, P12 rated telepath the numbers game had caught up with her. Using her talent to misdirect the mundanes' fire and attack the two rogues had left her too weak for even one more telepathic altercation. And though she had thought the last bullet had only grazed her left arm, with the rush of adrenaline wearing off she realized it hurt like hell, and she could barely lift it.  
Her firearm raised in her right hand, Collins edged toward the nearby alleyway and peered into it, praying she would find no more assailants. She immediately recognized the shape of her mentor's mind, but it was so weak she was sure he was dying. _Please no, not him too._  
Lisa rushed over to the figure crouching in the darkness, unable to hear him in her mind. "Sir, can you hear me?" she whispered.  
The psi cop looked up and groaned softly. "Sleepers..." He had been robbed of his telepathy by the drugged dart protruding from his arm. In the dim light bleeding into the alley from the street, Collins also noticed a crippling PPG burn on his leg. He seemed about to pass out.  
"Hang on. I think all the rogues are down, but at least one of the mundanes got away."  
"Passed through alley, didn't see me," the downed officer told her between difficult breaths. "Mathews?"  
Collins could not bear to express it in words, even in her mind. She managed to send the glyphs of ambush to his mind despite his dulled senses.  
_(confusion)  
(fear)  
(pain)  
(her body lying in the rain)_  
Revisiting the images of the recent carnage almost reduced Lisa to tears. Samantha had been her only real friend as long as she could remember.  
"Go on... don't let him get away." He managed to look up, and she saw her own growing anger reflected in his eyes. She took off down the alley as fast as she dared.  
It was nearly twenty minutes later, after the Bloodhound unit had finally arrived and joined the search, when Collins burst into the apartment containing the escaped mundane and two remaining blips. The blips, neither of them strong enough telepathically to be a threat, sat huddled fearfully in a corner of the living room, unarmed. The mundane, his face slightly burned from having been foolish enough to fire a PPG in the pouring rain, took aim at Collins from behind the dubious cover of a sofa. Somewhat recovered from her earlier exhaustion, she paralyzed him with a quick mental assault, and forced him to drop the weapon from his hand.  
_Pain._ The mundane doubled over in agony and screamed. She ripped from his mind memories of the ambush, and realized he had been the one who had fired the shot that killed Sam. Collins walked over to the man as he tried to regain his feet. She shoved him against the nearby wall. "You son of a bitch! I'll kill you." She let him drop to the ground as the Bloodhounds entered and moved to secure the prisoners.  
  
**2260**  
  
Ta'Wher had suggested they stop for a bite to eat as they passed through Harvard Square. The small deli they found there was busy, with all the tables inside and many of those outside occupied. However, the weather was unusually pleasant for this season. Ta'Wher also enjoyed the bustle of humanity among the round tables, as well as the look of the small trees that dotted the brick sidewalk circumscribing the establishment. The crowd itself was not a problem for a Narn warrior with a large sword on his back; he was given wide berth.  
Delighted to find Swedish meatballs were on the menu, he chose them for himself. Lisa, who seemed most uninterested in food, had said only, "surprise me." Ta'Wher purchased a curiously named "corned beef" sandwich for her and exited the deli. He quickly located his friend and sat down next to her.  
As always, Lisa Collins was dressed all in black, the depressing ensemble of the psi cop. The ever present gloves and the little Psi Corps pin rounded out her forbidding appearance. She brushed back a strand from her medium length hair, which was fortunately also black, or else it might have ruined the grim atmosphere she presented. Even her pale skin seemed an absence of color. Like all humans she had that disturbingly mammalian quality Ta'Wher found so alien.   
"Ms. Collins, your food has arrived," Ta'Wher announced with mock formality as he began his own meal. Of course she failed to notice and kept staring at her data pad, frowning.  
"I really hope my next assignment involves something out in the suburbs," she said. "Do you have any idea what a pain in the ass it is to block out these large crowds?"  
"Yes, I do, you complain about it at every opportunity. Please, eat."  
Lisa finally noticed her sandwich, and put down her data pad. She rubbed her fingers at the bridge of her nose and sighed.  
"You really should try to get more sleep," Ta'Wher said. "You've become rather cranky."  
"Sleep... I spent most of last night wide awake, trying not to reach the only conclusion I could reach. You know what we're dealing with, too." It was not a question.  
"Unfortunately, yes." Ta'Wher finally lost his jovial demeanor.  
The psi cop lowered her voice slightly to be sure she would not be overheard. "The city's Chief of Police in her own home. The Corps won't let the media get a hold of the cause of death when she finally does die, but we know her memory was wiped out and she won't recover from the coma. It's just like three years ago, right down to finding the drifters in the harbor before the high profile murders start."  
Ta'Wher looked down at his food and pushed it aside, suddenly feeling the meal had lost its flavor. Lisa's gloved hand crossed the table and brushed over his hand. "I can't imagine what sort of feelings this brings up for you. Other than the Corps I've never had a family. What you lost..."  
"It's all right. I know the Mindblanker case was no circus for you either."  
"Picnic."  
"What?"  
"'Was no picnic.' Never mind. What's important here is that we keep a lid on this thing. Having word get out about copycat killings that mirror the Mindblanker would be a huge embarrassment for Psi Corps."  
"Yes, I recall the trial was a media picnic."  
"Circus. Media _circus." _  
"Bah. Learn to speak Narn so I don't have to put up with this!" Ta'Wher kept his face serious for a moment, but finally could not resist laughing. He was rewarded with an all too rare smile from his friend. "Hopefully we can stop this fiend before he strikes again. Let's find that trainee of yours and 'roll.'" Ta'Wher tapped her hand lightly and then stood.  
"Kevin Tang is interning in Level 12 Investigations, so don't call him a 'trainee.' Most jobs where you're a trainee involve paper hats and questions about French fries."  
"I happen to think you psi cops would look an awful lot more friendly in paper hats. As long as they're not _black_ paper hats."  
"What's wrong with black?" Lisa stood and raised her arms slightly. "Black is slimming, see? _You'd_ look good in black," she joked.  
"By G'Quan! Let's just find Mr. Tang and get on with all this."  
"I've got him helping with the crime scene analysis at the New York lab. We should be able to catch up with him at the Meta Pol station in a couple hours."  
"In that case, we may as well walk. And you might as well finish your sandwich. You'll waste away if you keep picking at your food like that."  
"Nag, nag, nag." She picked up her sandwich. "After you."  
  
  
Even after nearly three years at the Boston Meta Pol station Ta'Wher still drew suspicious glances, Lisa Collins reflected bitterly. If she had not made such a name for herself cracking open the Mindblanker case and with subsequent work, his presence would likely not have been allowed at all. As it was he was left out of all briefings there, forcing her to surreptitiously fill him in after the fact.  
Ta'Wher sat smiling on the waiting room couch. He always took a perverse pleasure in being where he was not wanted. He greeted every telepath who walked by, even though he knew they would not acknowledge his presence. Mostly Ta'Wher watched the screen on the wall, as the Senate hearings on the allegations against President Clark droned ever onward.  
Lisa paced impatiently in front of the main desk. The officer on duty looked up at her again. _Care to take your pet Narn elsewhere, Ma'am?_ he 'cast to her. _You're both driving me nuts._  
_I'll be gone as soon Mr. Tang arrives,_ she sent back. _I thought the shuttle from New York was supposed to have arrived thirty minutes ago!_  
_Yup... Must be runnin' late today. _ He returned to looking at the dispatch screen.  
Collins had already talked about the case with her superiors, reexamined all the information herself, and the only thing she was sure of was that if Kevin came up with nothing she was back to square one.  
Finally, Kevin Tang arrived. As he rushed in to meet Lisa Ta'Wher stood and followed him over.  
"Anything to report?" she asked her intern.  
"Sorry, Ma'am. We've got nothing to go on. Whoever he is, he's just as careful as- as the original." Tang avoided saying the actual name of the old case because he thought Ta'Wher was not allowed to know. Ta'Wher widened his eyes as if in surprise that he had been allowed to listen at all, then he wandered back to his couch to leave the "real" cops to their work.  
Even Kevin thought Ta'Wher was just hired muscle, and Lisa was not about to let anyone in the Corps know she considered a mundane and an alien to be her partner. Buddy comedy movies aside, that sort of thing was unheard of, and Collins already had a reputation for being a bit too eccentric. If anyone found out she trusted Ta'Wher with sensitive information, she was likely to wind up in a ditch with a PPG burn on her back.  
"Well then I guess we're-" Lisa started to say.  
"Damn!" the dispatcher yelled. He switched to 'casting. _Ma'am, the normals' law enforcement just reported finding a comatose mundane with no discernable injuries in-_  
He was so anxious that a picture of the building rather than the address itself appeared in her mind. _That's less than two blocks from here!_ Lisa 'cast. _Key card._  
The dispatcher handed her a card to one of the hovercraft in the garage. _Tell the mundanes to get the hell out of there now,_ she 'cast to him. _Tell them we've got jurisdiction. And see if someone can't find the officer who reported in and blur his memory a bit. Make him think he hit his head or something. It may help with the cover-up later._  
_Yes, ma'am!_  
Kevin was already sprinting for the garage. "All right," Collins said out loud for Ta'Wher's benefit, "let's go." The Narn rushed to follow her out.  
  
  
From the state the victim had been found in, it was possible the perp had attacked as little as five minutes before the mundane police officer had found her. However, it was more than enough time to flee the scene of the crime, so Collins had directed most of the Bloodhounds and her fellow psi cops to search the surrounding area. With Tang and Ta'Wher, she began a search of darkened warehouse where the crime had taken place, leaving a few of the Bloodhound officers guarding key points to prevent the killer from evading them and escaping if he was still in the building.  
With the basement and the ground floor secure, they had moved on to the maze of catwalks and lifting equipment near the ceiling. Unfortunately, it had turned out to be the only way to reach the stairs to the roof. Kevin paused as they were crossing toward the door to the stairwell. Lisa noticed with dismay that there was no cover at all where they were standing, and that the door ahead was ajar.  
_What is it?_ She sent urgently.  
_I'm not sure. For a second I thought I got a sense of someone nearby._  
_Damn._ Collins strained her senses to look for something ahead, but without a line of sight into the stairwell there was no way of knowing for sure-  
Lisa had barely registered the arm reaching out through the doorway when the PPG in its hand opened fire. The bursts narrowly missed her head, but she felt Kevin's mind wink out instantly, accompanied by confusion and fear from Ta'Wher.  
Collins dropped to her stomach and aimed her firearm, but the assailant had disappeared and ceased firing. She heard a thud not too far below, which she took as Kevin's body landing on another catwalk. The way his mind had disappeared from her so quickly, she was sure he had been killed instantly. She still had a sense of Ta'Wher, but he seemed close to panic, which was unusual considering how steady he had always been under fire.  
_Ta'Wher?_ She touched his mind trying to sense what was wrong. Normally a panicked mundane would leak his thoughts all over the place, but Ta'Wher had always been unusually difficult to get a read on.  
Finally she picked up his surface thoughts. He had been blinded, and was apparently scared that saying so out loud would make him an easier target. At least he had had the presence of mind to stay down and not move.  
Keeping her gun aimed at the doorway, Lisa called in to dispatch for reinforcements as quietly as she could. Then in her mind she focused more closely on Ta'Wher, to try to find out how he had lost his vision. In his disoriented state he could not help but to try to fight her off.  
"Ta'Wher," she whispered, just loud enough for him to hear a meter away. "I need to you to relax so I can fix what's wrong."  
His mind calmed and Lisa took a look inside. She found the mental blocks that stopped his brain from receiving any input from the optic nerves. It was frightening to her that such an effective block had been put up so fast; on a mind as disciplined as Ta'Wher's, even a strong P12 should not have been able to accomplish such a feat. It also begged the question of why such a powerful teep had not just killed Ta'Wher by shredding his mind outright, but she filed that concern away for later.  
It only took a few moments to restore Ta'Wher's vision. Together they moved toward the doorway as quietly as possible, finally taking positions at either side of it. Lisa did not even bother to suggest that she go through first, because Ta'Wher was always adamant that he take the greater risks in these sorts of situations.  
The Narn drew his sword and jumped through the doorway. Collins followed shortly behind him, her gun raised and her telepathic senses straining to their maximum. They found nothing but the short stairway ending in the door to the roof. Lisa took a brief moment to give the dispatcher a more detailed report of her situation.  
Shortly after they made a similar exit from the building and onto the roof, three of the Bloodhounds joined them. Collins glyphed to them the situation and pictured which way they should spread out. A short time later the team had covered the entire roof and found nothing.  
Lisa finally broke the silence when the five of them had reassembled by the entrance to building, obviously alone on the roof. "Well, did he climb down then? Why didn't anyone on the perimeter see anything? He didn't just fly away!"  
Dispatch called in, and Collins learned that several other psi cops had arrived and searched the catwalks, but were unable to locate Mr. Tang's body there or anywhere in the building.  
"That's impossible." Lisa returned to the scene of the firefight, but could not see any evidence of what had happened, aside from a few PPG burns on the far wall. "What's happening here?"  
"Could the killer have taken the body?" Ta'Wher asked quietly behind her. Lisa was stunned by the possibility. Could someone have not only evaded a full scale search by highly trained telepaths, but also done so with a body in tow? To do such a thing would require a mind of frightening strength, capable of breaking the defenses and altering the memories of highly trained Bloodhounds.  
"I want every centimeter of the building looked over with a fine-toothed comb," she told the Bloodhounds who had followed her onto the catwalk. "There's got to be something we're missing." However, Lisa had a sinking feeling that the search would turn up nothing. And she felt a certainty that things would get a whole lot worse before they got better, if they got better at all.  
  
  
Lisa Collins pushed through the crowd, and the mundanes parted quickly upon recognizing her black uniform. Ta'Wher followed closely behind her. The entire concourse was filled with curious travelers, murmuring quietly among themselves. Logan Spaceport, Collins reflected, was about the worst place for the next killing to have taken place. It would be impossible to stop the media from getting wind of the nature of a murder in such a public place.  
It had been four days since Kevin had been killed, and the body still had not been found. Losing her charge hurt badly, although on a case like this it was easy to forget her feelings and get lost in the work. And while her overpaid, Psi Corps supplied therapist told her she kept other people at too great a distance, the fact that she had never gotten to know Kevin Tang well at a personal level made coping a bit easier than it might have been. Still, she could hardly believe how badly she had failed the eager young intern.  
The body of the newest victim had been found in a terminal which had been closed for renovations. The mundane officers guarding the doors to the terminal parted for her, while Ta'Wher took a seat nearby. Getting the Narn past the officers would have been a pain, and Ta'Wher would not have been allowed to see or hear anything of import anyway.  
The victim, a young girl, was being placed on a gurney by two of the Corps' medical personnel. No mundanes had been allowed on the scene after the responding psi cops had arrived, but the girl's parents were waiting outside the terminal. Lisa noticed with dismay the approach of the Meta Pol station's public relations expert, Karl Holdsworth.  
_Hey there, sexy._ Insofar as it was possible to 'cast with a disgusting leer, Karl did so. _It's been too long since I've seen you._ Just in case what he had 'cast was not inappropriate enough, this was followed by an obscene glyph of the two of them engaged in a sex act Lisa would not consent to if the fate of the entire Earth Alliance was at stake.  
This sort of crap had been going on for months without end. When her first and only complaint of sexual harassment had returned to her in a roundabout fashion as an unwarranted reprimand on her record, Lisa had dug around a bit and found out Holdsworth was an old friend of the Assistant Director of the Psi Corps. Since then she had in every way possible made it clear he was not getting into her pants, but this "playing hard to get," as Holdsworth saw it, seemed only to encourage him.   
One possible solution was to pretend to acquiesce, and when she had him alone tear apart his puny P4 mind and reconstruct it with a new personality. This probably would not be worth the risk of getting locked away for good if she were caught, though. She could request a transfer, but then she had spent her entire professional career in Boston. This was where most of her contacts and resources were, and leaving just to avoid one unpleasant man seemed like overkill.   
The biggest problem was that Ta'Wher had some idea of what was going on, and would therefore very much enjoy decapitating this pervert. The Narn was overprotective. As much as Karl's death would improve the state of the universe, it would not be worth losing her only friend when the Corps avenged the death of one of their own.  
_There's a dead body of a little girl in this room,_ Lisa sent back angrily. _Don't you have any respect?_  
_Yeesh. She was just a mundane._ Karl rolled his eyes. _What's eating you?_  
Lisa tried to get the conversation on track by speaking aloud instead. "What kind of spin are you going to try to put on this with the media? We can't afford another 'Boston Mindblanker' uproar, especially with the government as unstable as it is right now."  
"Let me tell you, it's some kind of fraggin' miracle. The victim had some kind of rare neurological disorder. Her parents think she got lost and then had a seizure. As long as our people handle the autopsy, we've got it made."  
Collins was so relieved she almost forgot for a moment how much she hated the man in front of her. "Oh, wow. That's great." Although after she said it, it occurred to her that having the serial killer she was hunting get away with yet another slaying was a bit less than "great."  
"Well, you better solve this thing soon, or all my work keeping this under wraps will be for nothing."  
"Yeah, my heart's breaking for you, Karl." She glyphed to Holdsworth her own personal fantasy, one involving a rusted razor blade and his genitalia, and pushed it on his mind a bit harder than necessary. Lisa turned away as Karl flinched from the phantom pain. After conferring briefly with the medical team, she headed back toward the exit to the terminal.  
Ta'Wher rose from his seat as she approached. "I know that scowl," he told her. "Either you are considering murdering someone, or Mr. Holdsworth was in that room."  
"Couldn't it be both? Come on, let's go for a walk." As they made their way through the crowds, Collins filled in Ta'Wher on what she had just learned.  
"I would say we are operating on borrowed time at this point," Ta'Wher told her. "If the killer is bold enough to strike in public places, even your Psi Corps will not be able to keep such a secret."  
"I don't know if he's quite that bold. It's likely the victim was alone in the terminal. The murder could have just been an attack of opportunity."  
"Then we have to ask ourselves the question, what was he doing in the spaceport if not to find his next target?"  
Lisa frowned. "If he's decided Boston is getting a bit too hot, he could be anywhere by now. Logan has shuttles going all over the planet, and transports going through half of Earth Alliance territory to boot."  
"I have even more bad news for you," the Narn told her, and pointed. A man seated nearby was reading a tabloid paper. The headline screamed in giant print: "New Boston Mindfragger Terrorizes the Hub!!!!!!" 'Mindfragger' had been the tabloids' name for the Mindblanker. "Fortunately, that headline only used six exclamation points," Ta'Wher told her, "When they reach nine we could be in trouble."  
"If we're not in trouble yet, I'd hate to see what trouble looks like." Lisa thought for a moment. "Let's make some inquiries in the terminals around where the victim was found. It's a long shot, seeing as how our guy can wipe the memory of any normal he talks to, but I can't think of anything better to do."  
Their first several inquiries at the ticket counters did not turn up anything. Not wanting to draw any more attention to the commotion around the closed terminal, Collins claimed she was looking for a dust smuggler when the mundanes wanted to know what was going on.  
Finally, she hit pay dirt. "Ya know, that reminds me of the damnedest thing that happened a couple hours ago." This particular baggage handler had been rambling on for quite a while since Lisa had stopped him, eventually just devolving into gossip about his coworkers. She had to wonder if he was part of the reason Logan had been famous for travel delays in recent years. "I was back to the check-in to tell Eddie I want to go on break, and then I notice Eddie is just standing there while the customers are waiting, so I says to him, 'Workin' hard, or hardly working?'  
The baggage handler laughed, or rather snorted at this witticism. "But then Eddie doesn't even answer me, even though he starts movin' again a few seconds later. It was like he was totally out of it for a second." The man leaned in closer to her. "Between you and me, I think he's got some kinda wicked dust habit. Screws up the brain, ya know?  
"Then he tells me to carry some suitcase to one of the transports even though it's leaving in like five minutes! That was totally against policy, I mean ya gotta check your bags at least fifteen minutes before."  
Lisa knew that the fugue state the baggage handler had just described could have been caused by a short term memory wipe. "The bags you took after you saw Eddie was acting funny, do you remember where you took them?"  
"Uh, yeah, it was going to that, uh, what the hell's that place? It's right on the tip of my tongue."  
Just after she had scanned him to figure out what he was trying to say, Ta'Wher said to her, "It occurred to me. What is the one place in the universe where a human will easily blend in and be able to hide, and yet the Psi Corps rarely exerts authority?" He pointed to a sign over one of departure gates.  
Before she even turned to look at the sign, she knew it would say the same place she had just seen in the baggage handler's mind. "Oh, wait," the man said finally, "I got it... Babylon 5."  
  
  
"Ah, Ms. Collins. It's good to see you again. It's been far too long."  
Lisa took a brief glance at the screen where she had expected the traffic controller to appear again. "Mr. Bester, I was wondering if you were going to try to get in touch with me." Once she had confirmed that the ship was on course for the jump gate, she turned away from the controls and faced psi cop on her the screen. "You usually handle the problems that crop up at Babylon 5, after all."  
"Yes, unfortunately I'm otherwise engaged. And the bearer of bad news, I'm afraid. Our ship holding in hyperspace has not found your wayward transport. Either it's been substantially delayed, or it hasn't followed its registered flight plan."  
"I wish I'd followed my first instinct and gone after him right away, instead of expecting he'd be caught the easy way. I'll bet the blip managed to influence the flight crew somehow. And if he guessed we'd be looking for him so soon, then the last killing at the spaceport might have been a deliberate attempt to let us know where he was going. I still can't understand why, though."  
Alfred Bester's image frowned slightly. "Yes, this is quite an enigma you've stumbled onto. There hasn't been a P12 who has disappeared or gone rogue lately, and yet only a P12 could possibly have managed to do all the things described in your reports."  
"Maybe the new killer came from the exact same place the old one did?" Lisa asked angrily. She immediately regretted letting the accusation slip.  
"My dear, you wound me." Bester managed to sound almost lighthearted, but Collins knew she was on dangerous ground. "Why do you think I'd withhold information like that from you? Is there a reason I shouldn't trust you?"  
"I should hope not." Although that was exactly the problem. "My point was that you didn't even find out where the original came from until well after the fact," she improvised.  
"And why would you blame me for that? Everyone involved in that little black project was killed when their test subject escaped. Hence no one left to warn the rest of us when he went on a homicidal rampage. Even I'm not omniscient." Bester smiled disarmingly.  
"I'm sorry. I suppose I've been a little upset lately."  
"Of course. I read about the death of... Mr. Tang, was it? My condolences. I hate to see one of our own turn against the family like that.  
"At any rate, Lisa... you don't mind if I call you Lisa?" Collins nodded slightly. "I can assure you that your new blip does not share the same origin as the original Mindblanker. That project was discontinued. Not that I wouldn't have wanted to continue it. After all, turning a P7 into at least a P12 is more than worth looking into, even if it did drive the subject mad. However, when the facility was destroyed everything was lost. There was not enough information left to even figure out what they were doing, let alone how they did it.  
"Far more likely this rogue of yours somehow managed to erase his name from the records, although even that would be quite a trick. As for why he's copying the Mindblanker... Well, one hardly needs a reason to hate mundanes, wouldn't you say?"  
Lisa forced a polite laugh. "You're right, of course. I didn't mean to get angry with you, I was just afraid I'd been left out of the loop again. No one ever tells me about all the crazy black projects going on," she said lightly.  
Bester became a bit more somber. "In all seriousness, Lisa, there is a reason for that. I know you haven't seen much of me since we first met, but you seemed very promising back then, and I have been keeping tabs on you."  
"'Seemed' very promising? Has there been something wrong with my performance?"  
"Not at all. You've been a great service to the Corps. In fact, you've done so well for yourself that you should have much more influence than you do. Unfortunately, you don't seem to be very... politically astute. You tend to tread on the wrong toes, and of course there's that Narn that follows you around. You should be more concerned about getting along with the family, Lisa."  
"The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father." Collins confirmed.  
"Exactly. Next to that, can you really trust an outsider?"  
"No, I don't trust him any further than I trust any mundane. He has proven himself very useful though."  
"Well, that may be true, but appearances are important. You're still young, Lisa, and I'd like to see you grow to your full potential. When everyone feels... more confident that you're putting the Corps first, you'll find new opportunities waiting."  
"Thanks for your concern, Mr. Bester."  
"Please, call me Al. And I'm glad we had this talk. I take it you've looked at the report on my last trip to the station?"  
"Yes. I must admit I'm a bit taken aback by how little they trust us. How did the command staff expect you to be able to help them after they forced you to take sleepers?"  
"They were too shortsighted to want my help, or care that I would have been more effective with my abilities intact. In fact, I'm a bit worried that your trip to Babylon 5 will be a waste of time. We can't give you any official backing given the nature of your investigation, and I doubt they'll just let you aboard of their own free will."  
"I imagine they'll change their tune when mundanes start dropping like flies aboard their station."  
"Perhaps. It could be your quarry is not even heading for Babylon 5. If he influenced the course of the transport he could have taken it elsewhere."  
"I consider that unlikely. Showing up where you're not supposed to be is a bit more conspicuous than just showing up where you're expected a few hours late. You'll contact me if the transport is sighted at Babylon 5?"  
"Yes. And I'll call ahead to tell them you are coming. I'm sure they'll be even less friendly if you drop in unannounced."  
"Thank you."   
Bester nodded, and then his image disappeared. A few moments later, Ta'Wher entered the room and sat down in the copilot's chair. Together they watched as their ship reached the gate and entered hyperspace.   
"Well, it's good to know I'm trusted 'as far as any mundane.'" The Narn grinned mischievously.  
Lisa chuckled slightly. "Well, you know, got to talk the talk." She raised her hand and made a motion of a speaking mouth. "I can't even imagine what kind of trouble I'd be in if Bester knew I let you listen in on our conversation."  
"Indeed." Ta'Wher looked down toward the floor. "Are you aware there is a small, glowing device attached to the bottom of this console?"  
"I was wondering how long it would take you to notice that. A little something I managed to pick up that blocks just about any form of electronic surveillance. I'm sure if Mr. Bester knew about it, it would improve his opinion of how much influence I have."  
"Somehow I doubt he would be pleased to know you had such resources. In fact I'd characterize your conversation as a bit adversarial."  
"It's just more confirmation that I've become a bit too different for my own good."  
Ta'Wher looked again at the device. "Is it on because this room is bugged?"  
"No, at least not that I could find, and I'm pretty sure I know about the sorts of bugs we put on our own ships. But we're going to have to start being a bit more cautious. Having someone like Alfred Bester uncertain about my loyalty to the Corps can be a very dangerous thing."  
"And how is your loyalty to the Corps these days?" Ta'Wher asked. "You've been increasingly troubled about something lately, even beyond our investigation. Are you having doubts about what you do as a psi cop?"  
"Yes... no... ah, hell." Lisa crossed her arms, then leaned back into her chair and looked briefly at the ceiling of the cabin. "I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. I mean, I agree with the Corps that rogues have to be brought in. Telepaths are too dangerous to the normal population to have us acting unrestricted. I agree that mundanes need to be protected from us, we need to protect ourselves from them, and the Psi Corps is the best way to do it..."  
"And?" Ta'Wher asked expectantly. As much as it was good to have someone to talk to, sometimes Lisa wished the Narn would stop forcing her to think about things she would rather not think about.  
"I guess I even agree that sometimes the rules have to bend a little to do all that. But... some of what we do is just too much. I mean, even mundanes are people, but we treat them like animals." She grinned sheepishly. "Um, no offense."  
"None taken. The Centauri have been calling Narns animals for years, so we're quite used to it." He said this rather stiffly. When Ta'Wher talked about the Centauri, it was either with his emotions carefully hidden, or when he was fully enraged.  
"Well, it's all completely moot. It's not like I have any choice in what I do for a living."  
"There are always other choices one can make."  
Lisa made a skeptical grunt. "Go rogue. Yeah, that'll be the day," she said sarcastically. "Or go on the sleepers and lose everything that makes me what I am."  
"You are much more than a bag of telepathic tricks."  
"That's all that anyone seems to care about. Except you, of course." Collins paused for a moment. "Can I ask you a question?"  
"Certainly."  
"Why are you still following me around?"  
"You don't enjoy my company?" Ta'Wher asked with renewed mischief. "I always thought you had an appreciation for fine wit and brilliant conversation."  
"I'll let you know when I encounter some," she joked, but then shook her head. "No, this is a serious question. After all that's happened, what the Centauri have done to your people, I know you want to try and help them. But instead of doing that you stay here. Why?"  
"My debt to you-"  
"Has been repaid in full several times over, and I've told you as much. What's the real reason?"  
"That you've told me my debt is repaid does not necessarily make it true. But if you want another reason... I feel that if I cannot save a single person, I can hardly expect to save an entire world." With that, Ta'Wher stood and made his way toward the door.  
"What do you mean, save me? I don't need to be saved," Lisa said irritably. "Well?" But Ta'Wher simply made his exit. She looked out at the shifting patterns of hyperspace. "Blasted Narn," she muttered to herself. But with the mention of Ta'Wher's debt, she could not help but remember how she had come to earn the Narn's undying gratitude...  



	2. Babylon 5: Shadows of the Mind Part 2

**2257 (Three Years Ago)**  
  
_I can't believe this damned mess is almost over,_ Lisa Collins thought as the defendant was escorted into the courtroom, heavily bound, by a pair of guards. This was the final day of the trial of Carson MacFarlane, the "Boston Mindfragger." And what an embarrassment for the Corps it had been. To be sure, Collins herself had been portrayed in the media as a hero to rival the fictional psi cop John Trakker for her role in apprehending the criminal. But the exposure of the cover-up, and the sheer number of mundanes this man had executed was the worst kind of publicity.   
The interplanetary headlines were bad enough, but things were worst locally. In Boston it seemed like mundanes were on the verge of forming the sort of angry, fearful mobs that had not been seen since telepathy had first been discovered. At least when the guilty verdict was finally rendered the situation would calm down.   
It was awful to see any telepath at the mercy of mundanes. As much as Lisa was disgusted by what MacFarlane had done, he was still one of their own. It should have been handled within the Corps. The entire situation had spiraled too far out of control for that, unfortunately. The mundanes wanted their pound of flesh, and for once they would get it.  
For a moment Collins considered the Narn, who also was seated in the front row, just a few seats away and behind the prosecuting attorney. He sat there clutching the Book of G'Quan, that horribly empty look still in his eyes. Lisa almost regretted that she had found him in time to undo his mental damage and save his life. Since the Mindblanker had killed his family and stolen his memories, the Narn had been dead to the world. Collins was not quite capable of feeling empathy for a mundane, let alone an alien, but she did feel responsible for his condition and regretted it.  
As for the Mindblanker himself, he sat as calmly as if waiting for a shuttle, hardly three meters away. Lisa suspected he would be sentenced to death. Not the standard death of personality, but actually executed. No one had been able to get a handle on his unusually strong telepathic abilities. And even under sleepers he was somehow able to resist any scan. There was no way to tell if a new personality could be put in place. For that matter, there was no way to recover the Narn's lost memories and restore them to him. Lisa was not even sure why that was suddenly important to her, but she realized that it would have helped her find better closure to the case.   
Lost in her thoughts, she was drawn back to the present by the voice of the judge. "Will the foreman of the jury please read the verdict?"  
A man in the jury box stood. "We find the defendant, Carson MacFarlane, guilty on all counts." A low murmuring among the crowd prevented the foreman from going on to list the charges, and the judge banged his gavel, trying to bring the room back to order.  
At that moment Lisa felt as if a strange fog were descending on her perceptions. She instinctively began to block mentally as if she were fighting off a scan, and the room came into better focus. MacFarlane, who was already standing to receive sentencing, suddenly turned and faced the spectators of the trial. His guards did not even react to this.  
"This has been terribly fun to watch, but I really must be going now. So much to do, so little time to do it in. Good night."  
To Lisa's horror, everyone in the entire courtroom except herself and the Mindblanker simply collapsed. _But the sleepers???_ Even her shock that MacFarlane had somehow avoided taking or resisted the sleepers paled in comparison to the simultaneous collapse of over fifty people. Whether they were dead or merely unconscious, affecting so many minds at once should have been impossible.  
Collins tried to rise from her seat and draw her PPG. She did so, but far slower than she had intended to. As far as she could tell her blocks were perfectly intact, but somehow she was losing control of her body. MacFarlane turned to her and regarded her as if she were some form of strange insect he had not seen before.  
"Ah, Ms. Collins. I am so happy that you came today. That little trick you pulled with the sleeper dart that led to my incarceration was _most_ inconsiderate."  
Lisa had finally brought her PPG up. It was pointed straight at MacFarlane. She willed herself to pull the trigger, but nothing happened. She wanted to scream in frustration and fear, but realized she could not move at all.  
"My friend has finally developed a resistance to your drugs. How fortunate it is that I can continue with my work." Lisa had no idea what the lunatic was talking about, but did not care. She was focused on what she suspected would be her very last telepathic battle, trying to regain control of her hand. "And now, I thank you for all you have done for me."  
Lisa felt the mental impulse, actually an attack from the Mindblanker, that told her arm to move the PPG up to her head, and she fought it with a strength born of desperation. Somehow she blocked it, but her arm began trembling. At any moment it would start moving, and bring the muzzle of the PPG to her temple.  
_Damn it I'm a P12, I'm a P12 and-spent-a-year-training-as-a-mindshredder-I-should-be-able-to-stop-him-whycan'tIstophimI'maP12-_ As she approached panic, Lisa finally managed to make a single mental attack.  
_Pain._ MacFarlane had been expecting just such an attack and would have been able to block it easily. However, Lisa had not attacked her assailant, she had attacked herself.  
An unbelievable wave of fire swept across her nervous system. For a moment Lisa was aware of nothing but the pain. Her entire body shuddered, and just as she lost control of her limbs her hands began to spasm. The PPG fired a single shot before it tumbled from her grip. The blast of superheated helium struck Carson MacFarlane directly in the chest. Collins, her weapon, and the dying criminal all dropped to the floor.  
For a moment Lisa Collins lay silently, curled almost into fetal position and shuddering slightly. _Good plan, maybe next time I'll ease up on the pain thing a little,_ she thought in a barely coherent fashion. Dimly she was thankful she had gone to the bathroom only a short time ago, otherwise she was sure she would have ruined her uniform.  
Finally, Lisa got up to her knees, grabbed the low railing and with effort peered over it to where the Mindblanker had been standing. He was lying motionless on the ground. His chest was still rising and falling, but given the severity of the wound that was not likely to last.  
She could have let it go there. Just ignore him as he silently died. But the way her mind had been violated infuriated her. Collins had been a psi cop for so long, and gone through such intensive training to prevent such an occurrence, that she had simply forgotten what it was like to have someone casually break open her defenses and leave her in such a helpless state. It was a lesson the Corps had taught her as a child, but apparently she had not retained it well.  
As her telepathic senses reasserted themselves, she realized that the mundanes in the room were still alive, although unconscious. This included the Narn. As terrible as what had just happened to her was, Lisa's thoughts again turned to the alien. His suffering had been far worse, and he would likely never recover. The poor creature would never even remember the family he had lost. Lisa tried to imagine having a family, and then staring at a picture of them and seeing only strangers. Would the Narn go home and ask forgotten friends what sort of people his family had been? What he himself had been like? Or would he just give in to despair, perhaps take his own life?  
_No. It's not going to be that way. I'm not going to let it be that way!_ Collins knew it was a terrible gamble, hoping that MacFarlane would be weakened enough by his approaching death that she could mentally overpower him. A part of her balked. Was she really going to risk her life to help a mundane? If she could steal back the Narn's memories from the dying man in front of her, she could snatch back one life that the Mindblanker had taken from the universe. Somehow, that made the risk seem worthwhile.  
Lisa Collins began what was commonly known as a deathbed scan, and felt herself descending into hell.  
  
  
This was Lisa's second deathbed scan, and she remembered the first quite well. There was a dying victim of an incredibly violent assault, and someone was needed to go inside the victim's mind to find out who the murderer was. Lisa knew such scans were unpleasant to perform, but she was eager to do her duty for the Corps and volunteered freely.  
What she experienced was very unpleasant, but at least there was nothing too unexpected. She saw herself standing with the victim in a child's bedroom. Such an odd image by itself was not necessarily remarkable. One fact every telepath learned early on was that the mind often saw telepathic input in symbolic ways.   
From an evolutionary standpoint, telepathy was brand new, and to interpret it the human mind was forced to put it in more familiar contexts. A hostile mental attack might be "seen" in the mind as a sword, while an attempt to block a scan might cause one to see a protective cocoon. The symbols were just that, however. Anyone who believed the sword in the mind's eye was a physical object would certainly fail to defend against it correctly.  
What was seen in the mind could certainly seem real enough, however. Collins reached out and touched a poster of an old rock band on the wall, and she could feel the glossy texture.  
"Man, I can't believe I used to listen to those guys," the victim said ruefully. He was sitting on the edge of the small bed, clearly apprehensive.  
"Sorry, I don't know them. I didn't listen to a lot of music when I was young," Lisa said. "This was your bedroom?"  
"Yeah. I remember when I was real little I used to be scared there was a monster in the closet." He nodded toward the door.  
Lisa instantly recognized the door to the closet as the liminality: the representation of the victim's approaching death. The symbol of the door was a fairly common one. Some might see it as a passage to some sort of afterlife, not that Collins believed in anything like that. Regardless, death could be seen as boundary, as passing from what is known to what is unknown. In that context it was no surprise that the mind often manufactured a door to represent it.  
"Are you going to stay here with me?" the victim asked. His eyes pleaded desperately for any comfort.  
"Sorry, I'm just here for some information."  
"So I'm getting scanned. A shame, I'd hoped you were one last fantasy my mind was cooking up. You've got the most beautiful brown eyes. I could get lost in them."  
Lisa shifted uncomfortably on her feet. "It's a bit late to be thinking about those sorts of things. But you said 'last.' So you know what is happening."  
"Yes." His eyes darted to the closet, but then quickly shifted away.  
"Could you tell me who killed you?"  
"Sit down, please." He patted the bed next to him with his hand.  
Lisa could sense time was growing short, so she did not bother to argue. He took her hand, and Lisa fought down the urge to pull away. The gesture represented their minds drawing closer, and while this was frightening it would also give her a little extra time to coax more information out of him.  
"Thank you," he said.  
"Tell me who did this to you, please. There's not a lot of time."  
The victim shuddered. "It was Fatty Simon."   
Lisa saw an all too clear image of the snarling face, and felt the knife as if it were penetrating into her own flesh again and again. "What a terrible way to die," she said quietly. Dwayne "Fatty" Simon was a thug local law enforcement had been trying to get off the streets for a while. This brutal murder would get him a death of personality for sure.  
"It's not so bad with you here, gorgeous." His attempt at charm did not do much to mask his growing fear, however. "Ha, look at me, flirting with you. That's what got me killed, I guess, playing the field. Fatty must have found out I was sleeping with his sister. He never did like me."  
"No, I suppose he didn't like you very much." Collins told him. She was still shaken by this man's memory of his own murder.  
"The last thing I saw was Fatty throwing the knife into the trunk of a hoverlimo. Probably Cordell's."  
A major player like Cordell being involved upped the stakes a bit. "I know you mundanes get really squeamish about this sort of thing, but I don't suppose you'd mind me picking your brain for a few details on your career? Our connection is too tenuous for me to do it unless you let me."  
The closet door opened a crack. "Only if you keep holding my hand." The man sounded more like a child than an adult when he said it.  
In the last few seconds she had remaining, Collins rifled through the memories of the now unguarded mind of the murder victim, picking up everything she could on his connections with Fatty Simon and Cordell. She found leads that would break open several stalled investigations.  
The dying man stood, and Lisa rose, still holding his hand. "I'm not too proud of my life. I guess I've done a few bad things... now I have to meet the monster for it."  
He released Lisa's hand as the door swung open. There was blood on the floor now, leaking out from the closet. Collins was sure the victim was not feeling very optimistic about the afterlife, and she did not want to see in what terrible way his guilty conscious interpreted crossing the threshold of the liminality. She heard his last scream in her mind as she broke their connection.  
  
  
Lisa's first thought as she stepped into Carson MacFarlane's mind was that her first deathbed scan had been child's play. She found herself standing on desolate landscape of a dead, alien world. There was nothing but dirt and rock in every direction. Gasping, Collins realized the air was not breathable. She fell to her knees and clawed at her throat.  
_It's an attack._ But as soon as she had the thought she realized it was wrong. MacFarlane was not deliberately attacking her. His mind was just so foreign and disturbing that she could hardly tolerate it. With an effort she stood and began breathing again. It took great concentration just to convince herself that she was not suffocating on the surface of a distant planet, though with time it was growing easier.  
She saw a black speck flying in the distance, which as it approached resolved itself into an alien vessel. Or at least she thought it was supposed to be some sort of ship. It was like nothing she had ever seen, floating with no visible propulsion, all mottled black, and with several large spikes poking out of its surface. The shape was reminiscent of a spider, or perhaps a crab. _Quite an imagination this clown has,_ Lisa thought glibly, but on another level there was something disturbing about the image.  
A terrible shriek filled the air, or perhaps the sound was entirely in her mind. Regardless it shook her to the core. Lisa's nerve broke and she simply panicked, fleeing away from the ship as fast she could.  
After what seemed like an eternity, Collins ducked into an outcropping of rock and hid. Gradually she regained her wits. Although it seemed that a lot of time had passed in the mindscape she had entered, she knew in real world very little time had gone by or else MacFarlane would already have died. Behind her she saw the outcropping actually led into a cave, and knew instinctively that proceeding into it would allow her to confront the Mindblanker directly.  
The cave was dark, although there was barely enough light to see by, emitted by no source Lisa could discern. She could not tell if the underground passage was supposed to be natural or artificial. There were occasional side passages and divergences in her path, but she proceeded unerringly to where she had to go. Occasionally, she dimly made out alien writing carved into the rock, of no language she recognized.  
Finally, she heard the instantly recognizable voice of the killer call out. "Every time they are driven off this world, they return. They pay their respect to him, but he will not answer. He simply hides, in caves very much like this one. They don't understand why he won't support their grand design for our galaxy."  
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about, MacFarlane. Come on out so we can talk." She drew her PPG from her belt, which in reality represented readying her mind for the coming telepathic conflict.  
Lisa stepped out into a wider area of the cave, lit by a small fire blazing in its center. Behind the fire stood MacFarlane, apparently unarmed. There was no sign of the liminality yet, so perhaps Lisa had more time that she had originally thought.  
As she took a step forward and aimed her weapon, the ground beneath Lisa seemed to come alive. Short tentacles formerly made of dirt rapped themselves around her ankles. She tripped and the PPG flew from her grip. Once again, Collins was defenseless before the Mindblanker. _Brilliant. If there were any witnesses to this I'd make the Darwin Awards for sure._   
"You are a fool, Ms. Collins. I cannot die under their protection. Evolution will-" Suddenly, a look of horror crossed MacFarlane's face, and he looked around wildly as if seeing something Lisa could not. "No, you can't leave me! I did everything you said! No, please!" He screamed in her mind and at once his incredible telepathic power diminished to almost nothing. Lisa stood casually and the things gripping her ankles dissolved into dust.  
As she retrieved her firearm newer, longer tentacles appeared. This time they surrounded MacFarlane, gripping him and beginning to pull him into the ground. Lisa realized in shock that the entire floor of the cave was the liminality. She knew the unusual size of the liminality image meant it was more dangerous to her own mind, and that she had to leave almost immediately or risk being drawn to the other side herself.  
Still she had come here for purpose. Lisa pointed the PPG at MacFarlane. "The things you stole. Show me."  
"No, they are mine! He gave them to me!"   
Lisa put her talent in Mindshredding to use. The image in her mind was only of herself firing the PPG at MacFarlane. In fact, blood vessels were exploding in his brain as his body lay on the floor of the courtroom. With his consciousness mostly destroyed, what was left of MacFarlane's memories was laid bare. The stolen memories looked like a group of refugees who had suddenly appeared, huddling in a corner of the cave. As the tentacles seemingly dragged MacFarlane down to hell, Lisa raced over to the images of MacFarlane's victims and grabbed the arm of one that looked like the surviving Narn. At that moment the Mindblanker finally died and the imaginary world of his mind disappeared.  
Lisa abandoned his mind and returned to reality, realizing there was a terrible pain in her back. It faded quickly and she assumed it was just her nervous system sending erroneous signals due to her earlier attack on her own mind, or her close brush with the liminality.  
Of more concern were the memories of the Narn. It was almost too much information to hold, and Lisa felt as if her mind would burst with the strain. She had no idea how MacFarlane had contained not one but dozens of these sets of memories. Thousands of images flashed through her mind at a rate too great to understand, an entire lifetime of important moments.  
The Narn had apparently regained consciousness while she had been in the Mindblanker's head. He was fearfully trying to rouse a man who had been seated next to him by poking his arm lightly. "Hello? Is anyone awake?" He had not yet noticed Lisa stirring.  
Lisa crawled over toward the Narn, her back still hurting from whatever the phantom pain had been. He noticed her shortly before she gripped his wrist. An entire lifetime of memories left her like a bursting dam. The Narn screamed and fainted due to the shock of absorbing so much information at once, but Lisa was certain all the memories had gotten through. She finally passed out from the enormous strain she had put on her system, and the last thing she heard for a long time was shouting voices approaching the courtroom.  
  
**2260**  
  
Captain John Sheridan was seated behind his desk, looking over the never ending parade of paperwork his job entailed, when Susan Ivanova charged into his office with all the calm of a raging tornado.  
He stood. "Commander-"   
"That bastard! That damned bastard!" Ivanova walked by Sheridan as if he were not even there. "Bester couldn't get into our heads so he's sending one of his cronies to do the job." Now she turned to her commanding officer. "Captain, I won't-"  
Sheridan cut her off. "Susan, please, calm down." She stopped herself, but a mix of rage and fear was obviously boiling just below the surface. "Have a seat, please." He gestured toward the sofas and table in the middle of the room. Reluctantly, Ivanova marched over and took a seat. John followed and sat down across from her.  
"Now first off, I want you to promise me you aren't going to do anything rash. No 'maintenance checks' that lead to malfunctions in the defense grid." Just recently Susan had nearly thrown her career away, planning to murder the psi cop Bester under the dubious cover of an accident with the station's weapons.  
"But Captain, the only reason the Corps could be sending this new psi cop is get what Bester couldn't!" She did not need to remind him of what was at stake in keeping the Corps from getting access to the command staff. Even beyond their conspiracy against President Clark, who had assassinated his predecessor, there was the matter of Ivanova's hidden telepathic abilities.  
"Commander."  
Ivanova sighed and looked down for a moment, then met Sheridan's eyes again. "Yes, Sir."  
"Now look, we handled Bester and we can get through this the same way. Delenn's telepaths still haven't left the station yet, and I've already told Dr. Franklin to prepare more of the sleepers."  
"Captain, we threw Bester for a loop with those things, but he wouldn't be trying again unless he'd thought of a way to get around our defense."  
"I've thought of that myself, but we don't know for sure that this is just an attempt to check up on us. The dust Bester claimed was onboard the station last time really was here. It's possible there could be something legitimate about this visit, too."  
"And what reason did Mr. Bester give to justify sending another psi cop after he was just here?"  
"Just that there is some sort of 'terrible danger' that only the Corps can save us from." Sheridan frowned. "He claimed that the details were on a 'need to know basis,' and I of course don't need to know."  
"We've heard that song and dance before, Captain. I know it's a lie this time."  
"Maybe, but there is some good news. When I told Bester I'd ask elsewhere about what was going on, he admitted that the operation had to stay absolutely quiet, and as a result there were no official orders for me to check on."  
Ivanova looked immensely relieved. "Well, that solves that problem. When the psi cop arrives we just tell him to get stuffed and head back to Earth."  
"Actually, the psi cop is a she, and it may not be that simple. A little while ago Dr. Franklin informed me security found a body in Down Below, and there was no discernable cause of death. He's performing an autopsy right now."  
"And you think this might be connected to Bester's claim?"  
"It's too early to tell, but we have to keep an open mind. If there is a danger to the station, we may need the help."  
"Well, I've always had a sneaking suspicion we were all doomed. May as well get it over with." With the return of Ivanova's fatalistic sense of humor came her professional sensibilities as well. "So what do we know about this psi cop, in case we do have to let her onboard?"  
"Garibaldi is trying to find out as much as he can. A cursory check has given us a little bit to work with though." Sheridan stood and led Ivanova over to the screen behind his desk, then ordered the computer to recall the file he had been viewing a short time before.  
An image of the psi cop appeared, with a scrolling text beside. Susan studied the display for a while. "Born in '34 and she's already been a psi cop for almost six years... they must start training them to goose-step while they're still toddlers," she remarked.  
"The most noteworthy thing that's a matter of public record is that she was involved in the Boston Mindblanker case."  
"Yes, I remember hearing about that on the news. He was a telepathic serial killer who used to steal memorizes from his victims."  
Sheridan nodded. "After he tortured their minds, making them hallucinate that they had already been murdered, over and over again. After the Mindblanker was captured, he did an interview with ISN I still remember to this day. He bragged about what he had done with no remorse, and that look in his eyes..." Captain Sheridan just shook his head. "It took me two or three hours to fall asleep that night."  
Security Chief Michael Garibaldi now entered the room, obviously in a hurry. "Captain, if you need me I'll be Down Below. The Doc told me he's going to give you the details as soon as he's finished, but for now he's pretty sure the Lurker in Med Lab didn't die of natural causes. I'm going to have to start poking around in Brown Section."  
"I see. Did you turn up anything on this Lisa Collins?" John asked.  
"Not too much, there aren't a lot of records the Psi Corps keeps that I could get a hold of. What I did manage to do is talk to the Chief Detective at the Boston Police Department. He couldn't give me a lot of his time because their Chief of Police was assaulted and is in a coma. All he did say was that he doesn't particularly trust her, although she's not as bad as the other Boston psi cops because she doesn't violate the rules for telepaths quite as blatantly."  
"That's just as likely to mean she's subtle about it, which could be more dangerous," Ivanova said.  
"Yeah. And also he said that she has a Narn bodyguard." Garibaldi said with a quizzical look on his face. "I have to admit, that's something I've got to see to believe. Captain?"  
Sheridan nodded and Garabaldi left the room.  
"Nothing good can come of this," Ivanova said flatly.  
  
  
Ta'Wher sat silently in his seat, looking out the ship's window and considering the impressive sight of Babylon 5. This close the immensity of the place was truly driven home. And, unless he had already fled the station, there was a killer onboard. The fugitive's transport had arrived at the station well ahead of them, only half a day late.  
"Babylon Control, this is the _Psi Star._ Please reply." Lisa had expected a cold reception, but nevertheless the long wait was finally getting to his friend.  
"This is Babylon Control." It was the voice of the same Lieutenant who had previously rebuffed them.  
"There have been five ships that arrived after I did but have already docked. Am I going to die out here or what?"  
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I was told not to let you dock without further instructions. Stand-by."  
"Wait! Could I please talk to someone in authority?"  
"Stand-by."  
The communication line was cut off. Lisa made an inarticulate cry of frustration. For a moment it looked as if she might strike the console in front of her before she lowered her hand.  
"If I were a telekinetic I'd take apart this damn station with my mind!" she said.  
"Once again, I suggest you have a look at the Book of G'Quan." Ta'Wher held up the large tome. "I know it always helps to calm my nerves."  
"Once again, I'll remind you that I can't read Narn. Why aren't there any translated versions?"  
"And once again, I suggest you learn to read Narn. The Book of G'Quan must be read in its proper form."  
"Just keep it up, and I'll tell you where you can shove your Book of G'Quan."  
"Since you are a mere ignorant human, I will ignore your sacrilege." Ta'Wher said this in a joking fashion, but in truth he was a touch dismayed. In the past three years he had tried to engage the spiritual side of Lisa Collins, and the only conclusion he could find was that she had no spiritual side. Although at least by now he had established in her mind that "ethical behavior" and "what is best for the Psi Corps" were not the same thing. Those arguments had been heated indeed.  
"I'm sorry, Ta'Wher, I shouldn't have snapped at you like that." Ta'Wher was about to tell her he had not really been offended, but she cut him off. "No, I shouldn't make light of your beliefs just because they aren't my own. And maybe I should learn Narn. You've had to learn a lot of English after all, and learning a third language would broaden my horizons a bit. Hell, I haven't spoken French in so long it would almost be a second language."  
Ta'Wher was very pleased when Lisa then called up the computer's Narn language files and began reading the introductory chapters. He returned to his own reading, and ten minutes later the station hailed their ship again.  
_"Psi Star,_ the Captain has said that your request to dock is still being considered. Please continue to stand-"  
"Could you please relay a request, Babylon Control? I have a Narn passenger on board who would like to disembark. If you would allow me to dock, I promise that only he will leave the ship until I hear otherwise."  
"I'll pass along your request. Babylon Control out."  
"Well, there's something, anyway," Collins told Ta'Wher.  
"I'm not sure it will accomplish anything if I can get onboard," Ta'Wher said. "I may be able ascertain whether our suspect is still aboard the station, but without the ability to apprehend him that won't do much good."  
"That wasn't what I had in mind. You're always bragging about how witty and charming you are, so I want you to convince them to let me onboard."  
"Given how they have treated us so far, that will be easier said than done."  
This time there was only a short wait until they were hailed by the station again. _"Psi Star,_ this is Babylon Control. You have permission to dock. Please approach and be prepared to turn control of your ship over to the station's computer on my mark. Only your Narn passenger has been given permission to enter the station for now."  
"Understood, Babylon Control. I'm on approach."  
A short time later the ship was on autopilot and gliding into the station. "Remember, I don't have any recourse to force myself onto this station," Lisa told Ta'Wher. "Be diplomatic."  
"Don't worry yourself, Lisa. I shall be the epitome of politeness and tact."  
  
  
"This is an outrage!" Ta'Wher cried at nearly the top of his lungs. He then began pacing angrily in front of the security office's main console. Seated behind that console, Zack Allan reflected that his conversation with the Narn had gone down hill very fast. "The last free member of the Kha'Ri is now _imprisoned_ by the Earth Alliance? An outrage! First all the difficulty just to bring my sword through customs, and now this injustice?"  
"Hey, look, it's not like he's a political prisoner or something," Zack told the raging alien. "He broke the law, and sometimes when you break the law, you end up in a cell."  
"Locked up for assaulting a Centauri! That should bring a medal, not a jail sentence," Ta'Wher snapped.  
"Yeah, well it's not a perfect universe. Deal with it." With the tension between himself and Garibaldi lately, Zack was running on a very short fuse, and this Narn was not helping his mood one bit.  
The Narn stopped for a moment and collected himself. "I apologize for losing my temper, Mr. Allan. If G'Kar must be imprisoned, might I at least speak with him for a time?"  
Zack Allan groaned. "Look, I'll let you see him for five minutes if you promise to get out of my hair! Maybe ten if you're lucky."  
"That would be satisfactory."  
"This way."  
  
  
Citizen G'Kar was sitting silently, pondering what words to write next in his book. His recent experiences had given him a wealth of information he wished to share, though committing his feelings to words did not always come easily. Finally inspiration struck, and grinning he lifted his pen once more.  
The door to his cell opened. "You've got a visitor," Zack Allan said without preamble. A fellow Narn entered the room and the door shut behind him.  
"Greetings, G'Kar. My name is Ta'Wher, and I seek your help." Ta'Wher then bowed in the traditional way. G'Kar put down his book, and then stood to return the greeting.  
"Well, there is probably not much I can do for you within these walls, but please tell me of your problem." G'Kar paused briefly. "Hmm... you seem familiar to me. Have me met before?"  
Ta'Wher only cringed.  
Suddenly G'Kar remembered. "You! I remember! It was seven years ago." G'Kar shook his finger in Ta'Wher's face. "You accused me of _embezzlement!"_  
This time Ta'Wher actually flinched. "Please, G'Kar, I did not make the accusation. I only conducted the audit. I had to obey my orders."  
G'Kar calmed. "Yes, that is true. And you did clear me of all charges. Most in your position would have lied in order to implicate me and gain favor with my rivals within the Kha'Ri." G'Kar frowned. "You were painfully thorough, however."  
"I was under a great deal of pressure to find something wrong."  
"I imagine so. Yet you did give a truthful report. I was very angry with you at the time, but now that I think about it I see things differently... I see almost everything differently now."  
"I thank you."  
"And now, seven years later you come to me with a sword on your back. What caused you abandon bureaucracy for the way of the warrior so late in life?" G'Kar asked.  
"It is a long story, and Mr. Allan has given me only a short time to speak with you."  
"Very well. Tell me of your problem then."  
"I have reason to believe a murderer has come onboard this station. A rather vicious human who is also a very powerful telepath. The law enforcement aboard this station is ill equipped to deal with him. My traveling companion Lisa Collins is also a powerful telepath, sent by the humans' Psi Corps to stop him.  
"Unfortunately, the commander of this station does not trust the Psi Corps, and likely believes my friend is here only to spy on him. Not without cause, for I've spent much time among this Psi Corps and there is very little to recommend it."  
"From what I know of the organization, I agree with that assessment," G'Kar replied.  
"Ms. Collins is not like many others in her organization. Although you do not know me well, I swear to you by G'Quan that she has not come to this station under false pretenses."  
G'Kar felt a pang of suspicion. "And you know this human so well that you can swear by G'Quan's name? You are a follower of G'Quan?"  
"Yes to both." Ta'Wher paused to consider his words. "She has had a difficult road, and perhaps at one time she was less honorable then she is now. But I do know that she saved my life at great personal risk. More than that, she saved my soul and avenged the deaths of my family after they were murdered. She is the reason I took up the way of the warrior, and stands at the center of the long story I have no time to tell."  
Now G'Kar paused to consider what Ta'Wher had just spoken. The words made G'Kar think of his own difficulties, and that some of his actions when he had first arrived on the station had hardly been in line with the teachings of G'Quan. G'Kar's instincts told him that Ta'Wher was sincere.  
"What can I do to help you?" G'Kar asked.  
"If you have any influence with Captain Sheridan, please speak with him on my friend's behalf."  
The door to the cell opened. "I'm sorry, but I just got a call. You'll have to leave right now," Zack said to Ta'Wher.  
"Mr. Allan," G'Kar said. "Please tell the Captain I need to speak with him immediately about a threat to this station."  
"Thank you, G'Kar." Ta'Wher said.  
"Fine, fine. Come on, get moving." Ta'Wher quickly bowed to G'Kar and then exited the room. Zack activated his link. "Allan to Sheridan," was the last thing G'Kar heard from him before the door closed.  
Now if only G'Kar could persuade Captain Sheridan of the danger as well as Ta'Wher had persuaded him.  



	3. Babylon 5: Shadows of the Mind Part 3

Lisa Collins was beginning to wish she had not promised to learn Narn so lightly. Studying a new human language was an undertaking itself, but here she had to learn scripts and phonetic groupings that were entirely alien.   
"Where is the library?" asked the computer.  
Lisa furrowed her brow for a moment, trying to remember the Narn word for library. Finally she repeated the computer's question in Narn.  
"Incorrect." The computer then told her the correct pronunciation. To Lisa it sounded exactly the same as her version.  
"Then what the hell did I just say?" she asked rhetorically.  
"The spoon walks in space," the computer replied.  
"What?"  
The communications system came alive unexpectedly, and Lisa almost jumped out of her seat. "This is Babylon Control. You have permission to disembark."  
"Thanks a bunch," she said sarcastically. It had been half a day since she had docked the ship.  
"Babylon Control out."  
Collins found a security guard waiting for her outside of customs. "Ma'am? Zack Allan. I'm supposed to escort you to the Captain's office."  
"Lead the way, Mr. Allan." Lisa tried to keep an air of impatience from creeping into her voice, but did not quite succeed. Allan in turn looked very annoyed with her. As a psi cop she was not used to mundanes treating her as if her time was not valuable. Truth is many of them were scared to death of her.  
"So, part of the Nightwatch?" Lisa asked as they entered a transport tube. "No offense, but you guys kind of creep me out and I'm a psi cop. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black, eh?"  
Her joke failed to lighten the mood. Zack Allan only scowled, and then mumbled to himself. "Fifty extra credits a week they said... Not worth a fraggin' hundred."  
After that awkwardness, Lisa felt some relief when they eventually arrived at Captain Sheridan's office. "Thank you, Zack," John Sheridan said. "That will be all."  
Zack looked confused by the situation inside, but nodded and left the room. The entire command staff was present, and Collins recognized them from the files she had studied during her journey. Also in the room were Ta'Wher and a crowd of Minbari. Ambassador Delenn was obvious because of her hair, and Lisa concluded the other Minbari were the telepaths Bester had mentioned in his report.  
"Ms. Collins, welcome to Babylon 5," Sheridan greeted her. He did not sound very enthused to have her aboard. The second in command, Ivanova, simply glared at her with such hatred Lisa could not block it out entirely.  
"Thank you, Captain. I imagine you are about to offer me the same ultimatum Mr. Bester told me about, but before that I'd like to know if you've had any unexplained deaths or comas onboard the station in the past few days."  
Dr. Franklin looked to Sheridan for confirmation before replying. "Yes. Several hours before you arrived a body was discovered in Down Below. That's-"  
"I'm familiar with the layout of your station."  
"After a complete autopsy we have not been able to determine the cause of death. Not long ago security found another lurker in comatose state. The victim died almost immediately after we brought him to Med Lab, again with no discernable cause. It was as if his brain simply shut down."  
"Well, that confirms it then," Lisa said.  
Sheridan bristled. "Ms. Collins, I do not like being kept in the dark about threats to my station. Now, your associate here has told us there is a rogue telepath onboard who caused these deaths. If this is true we have a right to all the information you have on this person."  
"Yes, you do," Lisa agreed.  
John Sheridan actually blinked in surprise. "Excuse me?"  
"Captain Sheridan, you're experiences with Mr. Bester aside, not every psi cop wants an adversarial relationship with normals while investigating a case. I am hoping we can cooperate in trying to stop the killer. I'm willing to share all the information I have with you as long as you understand one thing: the nature and existence of these murders cannot become public knowledge.   
"The Corps wants the utmost secrecy on this, but if we lose it there's no reason not to turn this place into psi cop central. If you had this much trouble bringing me aboard, something tells me you don't want Black Omega squadron showing up at your door with orders to turn this place upside down, signed in triplicate by the President."  
Lisa caught nervous glances being exchanged by the command staff. "Thank you for your candor, Ms. Collins," Sheridan said. "I hope you don't mind me being equally direct. We find the timing of your arrival a bit suspicious, and we don't have any reason to believe you will obey the rules for telepaths any more diligently than Mr. Bester does."  
"I wouldn't put it past the Corps to murder two people as an excuse to smuggle you aboard," Ivanova said. Lisa crossed her arms, and then rolled her eyes at the Commander's display of paranoia. Ivanova looked as if she wanted to follow up on the accusation, but managed to restrain herself.  
Sheridan continued. "So as you said earlier, we're giving you the same choice we gave Bester: either take the sleepers, or you'll have to work with the presence of our telepaths."  
"The sleepers aren't an option. In order to survive getting close enough to take the killer down, I need my abilities intact."  
"Well then, I believe you will be making some new friends during your stay here," Sheridan said, then spread his arms. The Minbari telepaths folded their hands together and nodded their heads in unison.  
"We could do things your way, but in all honesty if we work at cross-purposes it doesn't help our chances at succeeding. I'd rather your telepaths were working with me instead of just watching over me.  
"And so, I'll go you one better. I'll let your 'friends' scan me to verify that I do not intend to scan any of you."  
This was met with stunned silence. Ta'Wher's mouth dropped open in a way that would have been humorous in another place and time. Lisa could hardly believe she had made the offer herself. She had thought it over extensively during her time waiting in the docking bay, and finally concluded that she did not like her chances of apprehending the fugitive without more help. This was the best way to get a telepathic edge over the new Mindblanker.  
"Are you willing to consider my offer or not?" After she asked Lisa did not have long to wait for a response.  
"I knew you'd try something like this," Ivanova cried out.  
Garibaldi, who up until this point had been leaning silently against the edge of Sheridan's desk and scrutinizing Collins, said only "I don't like it."  
"Captain, she must have some way to fool a scan," Ivanova continued, then turned to Collins. "You must think we are pretty stupid if you believe-"  
"Commander, that's enough," Sheridan said sharply, annoyed with either his officer's outburst or more likely the entire situation. "Ms. Collins, you're going to have to give us some time to consider this. Why don't you head down to Med Lab and take a look at the autopsy reports? I'll call for you when I have made my decision."  
"I know the way," Collins said. She turned to leave but then stopped herself. "Oh, and Captain, I suggest you don't take too much longer. Once the killer is comfortable with his surroundings the attacks will escalate." Lisa walked out of the room with Ta'Wher close behind.   
  
  
The discussion following the psi cop's departure had been less heated than Sheridan had expected. The likelihood of further murders down below had convinced Ivanova that the risks were necessary, even if she was no more enamored with the situation or Ms. Collins. "I want you to go over every thought and memory in her head until she can't think straight. And if you push a little too hard and something breaks don't feel bad about it," Ivanova had quipped to the Minbari telepaths. Thinking the Commander was serious, the lead telepath had only assured her that the scan would not be life threatening.  
Ultimately, Captain Sheridan probably would not have been willing to go through with this idea of testing the psi cop's intentions if not for his conversation with G'Kar earlier. There had been something different about G'Kar lately that Sheridan could not quite put his finger on, but he did know the former Ambassador had been very convincing.  
The psi cop and her Narn bodyguard returned. The latter was someone John was no less curious about than his Security Chief was. Sheridan was sure that Bester would never tolerate such a presence, and anything that differentiated Collins from Bester was somehow slightly reassuring.  
"I've made my decision," the Captain told Collins. "We'll go through with the scan, but of course I'll be reserving judgment based on what is found and how cooperative you are."  
"Of course. I have to set the following ground rules: there are specific passwords, facility locations, and the like that are strictly off limits. Everything else is negotiable as long as your people are willing to swear to confidentiality. I'm taking a rather awful leap of faith to try to help you, Captain."  
Lucef, the foremost of the gathered Minbari telepaths, spoke. "To use that information would be a breach of trust. _Minbari_ telepaths would never do such thing."  
The implication of Lucef's emphasis was not missed by Collins, who looked quite angry. "Well, let's get this foolishness over with," she said. "Captain?" Sheridan nodded.  
"Please have a seat, Ms. Collins," Delenn said, indicating the nearby couch. After the psi cop sat the Minbari telepaths crowded in around her.   
The Narn Ta'Wher looked somewhat apprehensive. He walked up to Sheridan. "You have accused us of having a hidden agenda," he said softly, but with some menace. "Rest assured that if you have your own agenda to use this scan against my friend, there will be dire consequences."  
Over the next half hour not a lot happened, or rather not a lot happened that someone who is not a telepath could observe. Lucef and Delenn occasionally had brief exchanges in hushed voices. The psi cop looked very uncomfortable, occasionally holding her head as if in pain, and at one point John observed a few tears streaking down her face, which she quickly wiped away. The scan itself continued in silence, and the extraordinary length of time it took seem to mollify Ivanova. It seemed the Minbari telepaths really were leaving no stone unturned.  
Finally, Lucef stood. "It is concluded," he announced.  
"Good job," Collins said sarcastically, though she also sounded a bit shaken. _"Human_ telepaths can scan someone without leaving the subject feeling like she's having four simultaneous brain hemorrhages."  
"My apologies for any pain you experienced," Lucef replied, though without much empathy. He approached Delenn and Sheridan. "Captain. Ambassador." The telepath led them both out some distance into the hallway before speaking again.  
"I believe it is safe to proceed as this woman advised. However I am rather disgusted by both her past conduct and the Psi Corps in general. Only humans could devise such an organization." Delenn looked disapprovingly at Lucef. "No offense intended, Captain Sheridan."  
"None taken," he said, although he did feel annoyed.  
"However, she was more cooperative than I expected, given the thoroughness of our search. I am confident that she will not enter the minds of your command staff, or yours, Ambassador.  
"I am also convinced of the danger to this station, and as it turns out to Delenn in particular," Lucef continued. Sheridan frowned with concern. "The psi cop intends to explain this as soon as we return."  
The three returned to Sheridan's office. "All right, Ms. Collins. We'll do things your way," Sheridan said. "And in exchange for your help in stopping the killer, we'll do our best to keep all this quiet. Nothing about this situation will leave the room."  
"Thank you, Captain. I don't doubt this is going to be awkward for all of us, but I'm sure we can make it work," Collins produced a data crystal and placed it on Sheridan's desk. "Here is all the information I have on the murders. I'm sure you'll want to go over it very thoroughly yourselves, but for now I'll give you an overview. What we have is a series of copycat killings that match the MO of the Boston Mindblanker. If you've done your homework I'm sure you've already read up on that case."  
Sheridan nodded. "Yes, we came upon it going through your file."  
"Officially, the killer is either a P11 or a P12. As unofficially as one can get, I believe he might even be beyond the limits of known human telepaths."  
"If that's true then how are you supposed to take him down?" Garibaldi asked.  
"I've had a lot of specialized training in psi combat, but beyond that I don't need to beat him at mind games. I just need to keep from frying my brain long enough to get in one clean shot. And while I'd prefer to take him alive, the truth is in a situation this dangerous I'm only worried about taking the suspect down any way I can.   
"Keep in mind, Mr. Garibaldi, I could kill any one of your men with hardly a thought, and the killer might just as proficient at that sort of thing than I am. If there comes a time when your people get involved, I wouldn't send them anywhere in groups of less than a dozen. And even a large group of armed normals wouldn't be much more than cannon fodder if he knows they're coming."  
"You keep referring to this rogue telepath as a male," Sheridan said. "Do you have a description of him?"  
"No. For now I'm assuming he's male because that's what our profilers tell me. Male, anywhere from his early twenties to early thirties. A lot of the profile is standard serial killer material, but there's one piece of information that will be very important to us: besides his obvious hatred of mundanes, he also hates female authority figures. I'm not sure how the profilers guessed that, but the attack on the city Police Chief back home fits.  
"Given that, as soon as our rogue is feeling confident in his surroundings, there are two targets I think he'll be irresistibly compelled to: Ambassador Delenn and Commander Ivanova. I'm almost positive an attack on one of you will happen within the next twenty-four hours."  
The tension in the room increased considerably. "So you're the expert here on finding rogue telepaths," Garibaldi said. "How do we handle this?" Sheridan was not sure he liked the idea of this psi cop calling the shots, but he had to agree with Garibaldi. His own security forces did not have the training to deal with dangerous telepaths.  
"In this case we don't find him; we just let him come to us. I think if he sees me with all these other telepaths it will just scare him off, so instead we set a trap. We'll keep Ambassador Delenn in her quarters, guarded by her telepaths and any other security you think is necessary. Meanwhile I'll watch Commander Ivanova, but keep her in mostly public places.   
"The rogue will probably think Delenn will be more easily accessible after he sees me guarding Ivanova. When he shows up he'll run into your teeps and security, plus I'll come running in case you need help. With all that coming down on him, he might even give himself up to save his own skin. I've got a few guns with sleeper darts on my ship that your people can use."   
"Instead of spending my days with a psi cop following me around, can I just jump out an airlock now, Captain?" Ivanova asked. John guessed she was still frightened by the possibly of being scanned, but at least now she was hiding it well.  
"I wouldn't recommend switching the guards around," Collins said. "If the rogue suspects I'm here he won't feel safe until he thinks I'm accounted for. And if he checks to see which ships have docked here he'll know there is a psi cop onboard. I'd have taken a commercial transport, but by the time I got here it would have been too late."  
"Under no circumstances will I trust the safety of Ambassador Delenn to a human telepath," Lucef interjected.   
"Hold on a minute," Sheridan said. "How do you even know this telepath isn't going to be looking for more victims Down Below while you're waiting to spring your trap?"  
"That's a distinct possibility, but if I go poking around on the other end of the station, it puts Ambassador Delenn and Commander Ivanova in that much more danger. I can't be in two places at once."  
"I will look in Down Below for the killer, Captain Sheridan," Ta'Wher said. "If I can find any sign of his whereabouts it could help narrow the search." Collins looked as if she were about to protest. "We'll discuss this later," the Narn told her.  
"All right, that will have to do," Sheridan asked. "I can stop all outgoing traffic from the station if you think the rogue might try to leave? I'm sure I could think up an excuse, but then again the Psi Corps has a lot more practice with maintaining 'plausible deniability' than I do."  
"Wow, I'm starting to feel the love Bester spoke of," Collins said. "Thanks for the offer, Captain, but that would be premature. There's little chance of his leaving such tempting targets; this is a sick individual who cannot ignore such compulsions. Hemming in our rogue in would only serve to get him nervous, and he won't walk into the trap until he is feeling confident.  
"Also, first thing tomorrow I'd like to review the recent security tapes of passengers disembarking from the _Asimov."_  
"Well, if everything is settled then?" Sheridan could tell Garibaldi and Ivanova had objections that would wait only as long as the psi cop was in the room, but no one responded. "It's very late, so I think we should all catch a few hours sleep while we have the chance. Mr. Garibaldi, if you could arrange to move some security discreetly into Delenn's quarters?" Garibaldi nodded.  
Collins turned to Ivanova. "This will be over before you know it. And although I'm sure you were about to offer me the bed, seeing as how I'm risking my life to protect you, I'll be happy to take the couch," she said wryly.  
"I call the floor," Ta'Wher said glibly. Collins rolled her eyes.  
"There is not enough bad luck in the entire Universe to explain why this is happening to me," Susan Ivanova said unhappily.  
  
  
As promised, Ta'Wher had set some sparse bedding on the floor of the Commander's quarters. Lisa attempted in vain to find a way to get comfortable on Ivanova's couch nearby. Ivanova had already retired for what was left of the night.  
"A fine way to get yourself killed," Lisa said without preamble. "'I will look for the killer in Down Below,'" she continued with a surprisingly good imitation of his own voice. "If you want to kill yourself I'm sure there are less painful ways to go about it."  
"Two simple things: One, I intend to find evidence of where the killer is staying, not confront him directly. Two, as you told me, I should have been killed in the warehouse back home when this new Mindblanker touched my mind. Yet he did leave me alive for no reason we are yet aware of."  
Collins was not one to give up an argument easily. "Three, if you go poking around you may find him by mistake. Four, relying on the mercy of a serial killer is a very unhealthy idea. And from three and four follows very naturally five: you are a moron."  
"You cannot hide your concern for me with sarcasm. I am touched. However, there is a more important concern here than my safety: Captain Sheridan was correct that the killer may strike again in Down Below. I'm sure your opinion on when and where the next attack will occur is very well informed, but there are no guarantees you are correct. I cannot stand idly by while others are in danger."  
"Does the phrase 'martyr in training' mean anything to you? Or perhaps 'live to fight another day?'"  
"I have no interest in human clichés," Ta'Wher replied deadpan.  
"You are an insane and annoying individual, Ta'Wher, but I would miss you if you were gone." She took his hand. Despite the impersonal black gloves Ta'Wher found the gesture unusually intimate, especially for one who usually guarded her true emotions like a hand of poker. "I'm asking you to please not do this. It's far too dangerous."  
"I know the danger as well as you, but I cannot ignore what I feel is right. Please allow me to take the first watch. I will be leaving as soon you have rested."  
"Bah. This is hardly enough time to get rested. And I'm going to insist you grab at least a quick nap before you leave. You've been up a long time already. Good Night." As quickly as she had lowered her guard, it was raised again. Lisa turned away from him and again struggled to find comfort. After a time she fell into a fitful sleep, leaving Ta'Wher alone with many thoughts, few of them pleasant.  
  
  
Ta'Wher did acquiesce to a brief rest before the local morning came, although he felt more tired upon waking than he had the night before. To her credit, Lisa did not again attempt to dissuade him from his course. She knew that once his mind was made up, he could be every bit as stubborn as she could. Receiving only a final warning to be cautious, Ta'Wher departed.  
Besides the danger of being attacked by the copycat Mindblanker, Ta'Wher knew he labored against one other major obstacle. He had never been to this station before, let alone been among its seedier elements. Without contacts or at least a familiarity with the denizens of Down Below, Ta'Wher was essentially taking a shot in the dark.  
In lieu of allies he did at least have a small sum of credits to spread around. In the depressed slums of Brown Sector, this tended to loosen tongues. It soon became clear that the killer was keeping a low profile, however. Of the vendors Ta'Wher spoke to, many seemed nervous because of rumors about the recent deaths, but none had any definite information. The humans and other aliens trying to survive among the bleak corridors and squalid habitats were more numerous than Ta'Wher had expected. The task before him seemed more daunting with each area he visited. At least in his wanderings he had yet to see Narns trapped in this place, though given the situation on his homeworld it seemed very likely there could be refugees here.  
Ta'Wher should have recognized that the sanctimonious voice ahead of him was Centauri before he even passed the corner of the corridor and took the creature into his sight. "How positively wretched these humans are! And look at all these ugly little trinkets." The Centauri, old and of middling importance judging by the size of his crest of hair and style of dress, stood in front a rundown table where carved rocks were being sold. Beside him was a younger woman who was likely one of his wives, and a teenage child who had the look of what Lisa might have called a "snot-nosed little punk."  
"Eww, a Narn!" the little boy cried, and wrinkled his nose. His parents gasped in shock.  
"Get back, you awful thing!" the female cried, holding her child as if Ta'Wher might snatch him up and eat him.  
Ta'Wher had no intention of going out of his way for the sake of Centauri. "Stand aside," he said, and for good measure put his hand on the hilt of his sword. Not that he could draw it: he would likely be unable to restrain himself from violence if he gave in to the impulse to wield the weapon. And the price for killing a Centauri was too terrible to contemplate. If any Narn murdered a Centauri, the butchers had promised to retaliate by executing ten thousand Narn. As long as their homeworld was held hostage in this way, the few free Narns such as Ta'Wher truly had no recourse.  
The Centauri withdrew to the side of the corridor, giving Ta'Wher ample room to continue onward. "My brother will beat you!" the child yelled as Ta'Wher passed before him. When Ta'Wher did not acknowledge the threat, the little monster picked up a rock from the table and whipped it at the back of Ta'Wher's head.  
"You miserable little-" Ta'Wher spun back toward the Centauri family, only to find a fourth member had appeared. The older brother had arrived, and a makeshift blunt instrument in his hand was sailing directly towards Ta'Wher's face. It connected with his nose and the impact made a crunching sound he rather wished had not come from his body.  
"Gahhh!" The parents of these unruly brats looked as if they feared retaliation, but for the moment Ta'Wher's world was busy filling itself with pain. He stumbled away, off balance from the force of the blow. He was struck several more times in the back.   
"Kif, come away from that Narn right now!" the old Centauri yelled. A final blow struck Ta'Wher behind the joint of his knee, and once again knocked off balance he stumbled into one of the makeshift tents the lurkers here sometimes used, knocking it down and landing on something soft but not very yielding.  
As the family of Centauri retreated rapidly, Ta'Wher regained his bearings. He realized he had landed on two humans. "I'm terribly sorry," he began, but quickly noticed the humans were not moving. He checked one of them for a pulse. "Oh, son of a bitch!" he cried, unintentionally using one of Lisa's favored curses. Ta'Wher got up and ran for the nearest BabCom unit.  



	4. Babylon 5: Shadows of the Mind Part 4

Collins, replaying station security tapes from a console in C&C, paused and rewound the feed. "Commander Ivanova, come have a look at this."  
Ivanova walked down the stairs showing the thinly veiled look of hatred and contempt Lisa had already gotten used to. "Having trouble with the controls? Let me explain how the playback works," she said condescendingly.  
Lisa barely managed to restrain herself from rising to the bait. "Here's our man." On the screen a hooded figure dressed in grey, his face unfortunately obscured from the camera, walked right through customs without showing his ID. Not only did four security guards fail to notice him, one Lisa recognized as Zack Allan actually looked right past him as if the intruder were not there. "Wow, that is amazing control. None of them even bat an eyelash," she said with some admiration.  
"I bet you wish you could mess with people's heads that efficiently," Ivanova said dryly.  
Lisa turned to the Commander. "Now really, that's enough. You've been on my back all morning, and I've tried to be polite, but if you think-"  
Before the argument could spiral out of control, Ivanova's link sounded. After she answered came Doctor Franklin's voice. "This Med Lab. We've got another two bodies down here, Commander, and the psi cop's bodyguard has been injured."  
Lisa bit her lip. At least Ta'Wher was alive, but her overactive imagination began conjuring a hundred terrible maladies that might have befallen her friend.  
"We're on our way," Ivanova replied. Collins was already heading for the door.  
A short time later, the pair entered Med Lab One, and Lisa immediately rushed to the table where Ta'Wher was seated. Beside him Doctor Franklin was fiddling with some medical device. "What the hell happened to your face?" Lisa asked the Narn.  
"I had an encounter with one of the future genocidal maniacs of the Universe," he replied ruefully. His finger reached tentatively toward his nose.  
"Hey, don't touch that for the next few hours if you want it to heal up right," Doctor Franklin admonished Ta'Wher.  
"Doctor, are the new arrivals two more victims of the killer?" Ivanova asked.  
"I'll need to examine them to be absolutely sure, but that's the way it looks," he said regretfully. Collins imagined the Doctor must be feeling helpless, seeing as there was nothing he could do for any of murder victims.  
Ivanova's link sounded again, this time a call from Sheridan. "Commander, get that psi cop to my office now," he said angrily.  
"I'm sure he just wants to discuss your total lack of results so far," Ivanova supplied, not so helpfully.  
"Come on, Ta'Wher," Lisa said.  
"Actually, I was going to continue my search. I'm sure there are more clues near where I found the bodies."  
"Forget it. Station security can handle forensics a lot better than you can, and you've played hero enough for one day."  
"But-"  
"No."  
"I-"  
"No," she said firmly. Ta'Wher frowned at the repeated interruption. "I'm putting my foot down. You've done all you can down there, and I might need you very soon. With the killings this frequent, it has to mean the killer is losing control of himself. This is going to get very ugly very fast and I need you to watch my back."  
Lisa did not truly believe she needed Ta'Wher to protect her so much as she wanted to protect him, and likely the Narn knew this as well, but nevertheless he acquiesced. "Very well."  
"If you two are done, the Captain is waiting," Ivanova told them. The three departed, leaving Dr. Franklin to his unpleasant duties.  
As they were waiting outside Med Lab for a transport tube, Zack Allan approached. "Commander, Mr. Garibaldi wanted me to give you and Doctor Franklin some information," he held out a data pad to Ivanova, looking suspiciously at Collins. Probably Garibaldi had dug up some minor piece of dirt on her and was routing it around to make sure no one on the command staff made the mistake of trusting her. Lisa could have told him there was no danger of that. Obligingly, she wandered a short distance away so Ivanova could read undisturbed.  
Looking around a corner, Lisa was frozen in her tracks by a strange sight. An alien, in some sort of hostile environment suit, stood a short distance away in the otherwise empty corridor. The thing that most drew her attention was the single green eye, with some sort of iris that opened and shut before her. The long brown head of the suit tilted briefly to the side, and somehow Lisa got the impression the creature was studying her. Telepathically, she could not even begin to describe what she was feeling, only that it was subtle and somehow both above and below her ability to fully perceive. Not that that made any sense.  
A strange sound with a ghostly quality filled the air, and then the alien spoke. _"You have followed your shadow to this place. I will see you again, before the end."_ With that cryptic remark, it turned and moved away. Glided away might have better described it. Collins was left speechless.  
Lisa did not even notice Ivanova's approach. "Ms. Collins, anytime that's convenient for you," she said sarcastically.  
"What was that?" Collins asked in awe. But when she turned back the alien had finished its withdrawal. "There was an alien... hidden under some sort of environment suit... then it said something..." Lisa trailed off, completely nonplussed.  
"Did what it said make any sense?" Ivanova asked.  
"None at all."  
"You just met the Vorlon Ambassador. Are you coming?" she indicated the transport tube back down the hall, which Ta'Wher was holding for them.  
"Right."  
At least they arrived at Sheridan's office without further incident. Captain Sheridan did not wait to say what was on his mind. "Ms. Collins, security has informed me that a third body has just been found not far from where the other two recent victims were found. We have to do something more than just wait for this rogue to walk into your trap."  
"Oh, but we've done so much more than wait, Captain," Ivanova said. "After wandering around the Zocalo for no particular reason at Ms. Collin's insistence, we went up to C&C where we learned the killer likes wearing bland clothes."  
Collins bristled. "We were in the Zocalo because I thought it was a likely place for the blip to try to get a feel for the station, and I might have picked up on his presence. And even if the security tapes didn't give us much, they did show that he is male as we thought, and he's slightly shorter than Mr. Allan."  
"That doesn't change the fact that people are dying on my station by the hour now," Sheridan insisted. "I've never heard of a serial killer striking so rapidly."  
"I don't fully understand it myself. Normally, a killer this impatient would slip up and be caught easily. Unfortunately, as a strong telepath he has an incredible advantage over most other criminals."  
Sheridan's link signaled. "Sheridan. Go."  
It was C&C. "Captain, we've just gotten an alarm from Ambassador Delenn's quarters," the young lieutenant said urgently.  
"Tell security to converge on the Ambassador's quarters," Sheridan said, already racing out of his office. Everyone else in the room followed.  
The group met up with Michael Garibaldi and a number of his security guards a short distance from Delenn's quarters. Everyone had PPGs drawn, except of course Ta'Wher. The Narn had not drawn his sword yet, but then he could draw and strike in an instant. Perhaps the only advantage Ta'Wher held in these situations was that everyone underestimated a warrior with such an archaic weapon.  
The door to the Ambassador's quarters was open, and Lisa could hear her calling for help inside. Before Lisa could open her mouth to mention what she thought was obvious, that they might be too late and the situation could be a trap, Captain Sheridan ran toward the opening ahead of his security.  
"Captain!" Garibaldi said in a hushed but desperate voice, clearly dismayed by this sudden recklessness. When Sheridan ignored him, he shrugged and then followed.  
As she approached the doorway, Collins got a fairly clear mental impression from the Ambassador. She was frightened for the safety of someone else, but not herself. Realizing the killer had either already escaped or was incapacitated, she abandoned caution and raced to join the Captain, entering the room right behind him.   
Unfortunately, it immediately became apparent that the killer had escaped rather than been incapacitated. Inside the room were several security guards, who were conscious but had all dropped their weapons. As Lisa took in the situation one of them tried to pick up his PPG and then withdrew his hand as if it had been burned; the blip had somehow convinced the guards their sidearms were scalding hot through his telepathy. At least the blip had not had enough time to convince them to shoot each other instead.  
That was thanks to the Minbari telepaths, who had apparently driven off the intruder before Delenn could be hurt. Though not without taking losses, as one of the telepaths was obviously dead due to a PPG burn in his chest. Lucef had a serious burn on his arm, but it was not likely to be fatal. The rest of the telepaths seemed somewhat disoriented.   
Ambassador Delenn, Lucef, and another Minbari Collins recognized as the Ambassador's aide were crowded around a prone human, not very far from the doorway. The unconscious man was strangely dressed, in some sort of exotic clothing or uniform Lisa could not place. Some distracted portion of her mind also noted he was rather striking in appearance. By his side was some sort of fighting stick.  
Delenn looked up. "John, we can't wake Marcus," she said desperately. With tears in her eyes, she glanced briefly at the slain telepath before turning her attention back to the strangely dressed human.  
"That monster has done something to his mind," Lucef supplied angrily. He took on a look of intense concentration. "It's... it's... his mind is too alien for me understand the damage."  
Ta'Wher and Garibaldi entered the room, with Garibaldi immediately grasping that the Mindblanker had escaped and then ordering some of his men behind him to start searching.  
"Captain, let me try to help him," Lisa said. Before he could object she continued, "I know you still don't trust me, and for that matter I probably won't think very much of you if you were gullible enough to trust a strange psi cop completely, but what happened here could very well be time sensitive. If you don't let me do this there is a very good chance he'll die."  
"All right, help him," Sheridan said without much pause. Outside, Collins heard Garibaldi tell Ivanova she'd be safer inside the quarters. _At least some of these people have some sense,_ Lisa thought as she turned her attention to the mind of the-  
_(ranger-anla'shok)_   
_Opps._ Lisa had neglected to mention that she was inevitably going to pick up some surface thoughts here and there, but to be fair she had no attention of poking around where she was not supposed to.   
Although her search was taking up most of her concentration, vaguely Collins heard Delenn describe how the killer had somehow opened the door without warning. That was followed by the hooded figure firing two shots with a PPG, the security guards dropping their weapons, one of the telepaths firing and missing with one of Lisa's dart-throwers, and Marcus striking the intruder with his weapon several times before he collapsed and the intruder fled.  
_There you are you little sucker,_ Lisa thought on identifying the problem. What she learned was mostly encouraging. The new Mindblanker had not had time to steal or damage the ranger's memories, and the attack was typical of her previous experience with the killer and his predecessor MacFarlane. Although that did mean Marcus would die if left untreated, Collins was sure she had a few more minutes to play around with than she needed. That was assuming no new tricks, but then his attacker had not exactly had a lot of time to arrange the block.  
Lisa saw the ranger's mind as a rather complex set-up of plumbing, with tiny pipes and joints going every which way. On one little pipe near the center was a clamp that was slowly tightening, restricting the flow of water, or in reality brain activity. If left unchecked the clamp would crush the pipe, representing the point of no return where the victim would be beyond help.  
To be sure, there was an insidious and intricate trap to it: almost any attempt to tamper with the "clamp" would cause it to close more rapidly. However, it was clear the maker of block had made the same exact mistake as MacFarlane, to the point that it was almost too much of a coincidence to be believed. He had protected against every possible way of finessing the clamp off, but had overlooked the brute force approach, something you do not do if you want to stop a mind-shredder.  
_Easy... easy..._ In her mind's eye, a tiny scale PPG appeared near the plumbing and took aim. The trick here was to find the shot that hit the clamp without breaking any other pipes and causing brain damage. Even a good shot might wreak havoc on his short term memory, but the ranger would recover quickly if Lisa did not screw this up.  
She fired, and the clamp broke neatly in half and vanished, without a mark on the pipe. _Perfect._ Collins spent a few moments observing the network of pipes, but it quickly became clear there was no further trickery to be overcome. As she returned her consciousness fully to real world, her mind touched briefly with that of the awakened ranger.  
"We live for the One, we die for the One," she muttered, not of her own volition, and then shook her head to clear it. Lisa noticed that Sheridan, Ivanova, and all the Minbari were looking at her in a surprised and perhaps nervous fashion.  
"Sorry if that was something I was not supposed to hear. It just sort popped into my head. That's all I got though," she reassured them. "Well, that and he calls himself a 'ranger.'" This seemed to upset them even more. "Not that I have any idea what a ranger does," she quickly supplied. "You can of course perform another painful, sadistic scan if you doubt my word."  
"That won't be necessary," Sheridan said. Not surprisingly, Ivanova looked less than happy with her Commanding Officer's statement.  
Marcus began to stir. "The good news is that 'Strider' here is going to make a full and immediate recovery." Lisa did not know if anyone in the room had gotten the literary reference, except of course Ta'Wher, who voraciously read every human work Lisa threw his way.  
"Thank you for your help," Delenn told Collins.   
Garibaldi approached and kneeled down close to Marcus. "Marcus, did you see which way the guy went when he ran?" Another thing that Lisa had heard during her work on Marcus, even though it had not registered until just now, was that the Mindblanker had been wearing some sort of mask, and none of the witnesses was sure which way he had fled down the corridor.  
"I'm sure I have no idea," Marcus said softly before opening his eyes. "The last thing I remember was hitting the bastard in the face." His short term memory had come through all right, it seemed. "And Mr. Garibaldi, next time I lose consciousness please have someone else ask the questions... yours is not the best visage to wake up to." He seemed to be looking toward Ivanova, Collins thought.  
Delenn's aide looked relieved at this statement. "He is quite recovered."  
"Are you kidding? If he doesn't appreciate my rugged good looks, there's still a few screws loose," Garibaldi said, although he looked rather grim. Not that that was surprising given the situation. With Marcus out of danger the fatality behind them was on everyone's mind.  
Except for Marcus himself, who was still somewhat disoriented and had just finally noticed Lisa. "Hello. I don't believe we've met."  
"Lisa Collins... I, um, fixed your brain," she stammered awkwardly. _Fine time for a school girl crush,_ she thought, disappointed in herself.  
"Thank you. I don't suppose there is anything you can do for this pounding headache?"  
"No, I'm afraid you're stuck with that for a few hours."  
A link sounded. "Garibaldi. Go."  
It was Zack Allan. "Chief, we've got people all through Green Section, he's not getting out." Lisa shook her head at Garibaldi.  
"Negative, Zack, have everyone get out," Garibaldi replied. "After what I've seen here, I can tell you we're almost certainly going to get killed if any of us try to stop this guy without the psi cop around."  
"All right, I'll pass that along," Zack said, disappointed.  
"Remember, don't let anyone know anything more than they have to." Garibaldi sounded frustrated about having to keep the rest of his security personnel in the dark.  
"Yeah right, what is this, Code 7-R stuff?" Zack asked bitterly. Lisa did not get the reference, but Delenn, Sheridan, and Ivanova were clearly alarmed. Garibaldi also looked like he wanted to strike his link with his fist. Instead he got up and dragged the other three out of the room and thus out of Lisa's earshot, after admonishing Allan about making idle chatter over the link. Ta'Wher now approached Marcus, trying to help the ranger take his mind off his near death experience by asking him questions about his weapon. Shortly thereafter some of the station's medical personnel arrived, eventually followed by Dr. Franklin.  
Lisa noticed Lucef had gone over to his fallen comrade. With some trepidation she moved to join him. "I'm sorry. The trap was my idea, and this was all my fault. Everyone here could have been killed."  
She braced herself for a harsh berating, but it was not forthcoming. "No... I looked in your mind and saw everything you saw. To me your plan seemed like wisdom. As the only two who could truly understand the danger, we share the blame equally."  
"Thank you." And somehow she did feel truly grateful for his words. There was a time when a room full of alien telepaths and mundanes might have seemed-  
_(disposable)_  
-not that important.  
Lucef and his surviving telepaths were then helped out of the room so they could be checked over and treated at the Med Lab. Marcus also left the room on his feet, although he seemed slightly dizzy and needed assistance.  
Lisa spent the next few minutes convincing the various security guards in the room that their sidearms were not too hot to hold. Unlike with Marcus, these were the sort of child's play blocks that were not intended to survive the intervention of another telepath.  
Finally, with the situation in the Ambassador's quarters somewhat sorted out, Collins, Ta'Wher, Delenn, her aide, and the command staff gathered together. Dr. Franklin had to immediately step aside, however, when his link signaled. The security guards left the room at Garibaldi's order.  
"Well, I just got off the link and there's no sign of this maniac anywhere," Garibaldi began. "You'd think a guy in a hood and mask would be noticed by _someone_ who wasn't then made to forget. How many people's memories can one of you mindfraggers erase in a day anyway?"  
Lisa did not especially appreciate being called a mindfragger, especially under the circumstances, but did not respond to it. "I could tell you about how many I could handle, but this guy seems to do it like the rest of us breath. I just don't get it. I mean, I could do any of the things that happened in this room: fire a PPG, block a combined group of telepaths for a few seconds, make the security guards drop their weapons, knock an attacker out cold with a fatal block. But I couldn't do them all at virtually the same time, especially not while some English guy was beating the hell out of me with a stick."  
For once, a bit of gallows humor seemed to ease the tension a little. Garibaldi continued. "Another thing that's bothering me: how did he get in here?"  
"Either he's got some pretty advanced security training, along with the necessary equipment, or he got near someone with the authorization to open doors and telepathically stole a password."  
"Let me check on that." Garibaldi walked over to a nearby computer console.  
"Delenn, I want you off the station immediately," Sheridan said. "Ms. Collins will escort you to the docking bay. And I want to go over your ship with the station's sensors before you get on to make sure no one else in aboard." It was amazing how fast normals could develop a healthy paranoia when a telepathic criminal was on the loose. "I don't really care where you go, even if you just wait on the other side of jumpgate for us to handle this. But I need you off the station to deal with this."  
Even someone as socially inept as Collins knew she was could tell there was some sort of strong relationship between Captain Sheridan and Delenn. But even if his decision was based partly in emotion, Lisa agreed with it herself. It was clear now that having both Ivanova and Delenn as potential targets was too much to handle.  
"I will do what I have to do." It was clear Ambassador Delenn was not one who liked to back down when threatened, but she could also grasp the situation as keenly as everyone else. She now turned to Lisa. "Ms. Collins, I expect that you will have destroyed this monster when I return." There was a fire in her voice that Lisa almost found intimidating.   
It finally occurred to Lisa just how serious the death of the Minbari telepath was, and how much worse it could have been if Delenn had died. The Earth-Minbari War had started with a single Minbari death. A memory flashed quickly through Lisa's mind: when she had been thirteen years old, the Corps had desperately evacuated its best telepaths shortly before the Battle of the Line. Lisa remembered staring out the transport window at the Earth and seeing all the ships gathering for one last, hopeless defense. She had thought she would never see her homeworld again.   
"Ambassador, I promise you either the Mindblanker will leave this station feet first, or I will." And that was now what it had come down to; Lisa knew she was not good enough to take the killer alive. This answer seemed to satisfy Delenn.  
"I will prepare the ship," Delenn's aide supplied. He bowed slightly in that peculiar Minbari way before leaving the room.   
Doctor Franklin now approached. "Ambassador, your people have had a cursory examination in Med Lab, and Lucef is being treated for his PPG burn. They all seem fine, but of course I'm going to head down there myself for a closer look." Now the Doctor was addressing Sheridan as well. "Marcus's dizzy spell has passed, and although I've been told he's spoiling for a fight, I'm going to have to recommend that he stay in Med Lab for observation." Sheridan and Delenn both nodded.   
"Captain?" Franklin asked.  
Captain Sheridan nodded and Dr. Franklin left the room.  
Now Garibaldi returned to the impromptu council. "No passwords were used to open the door. In fact, according to the computer records the door was opened from the inside." Delenn shook her head. "It's possible that Eraso the Mind Wiping Wonder Teep had some kind of cracking devise that altered the records."  
Lisa laughed so hard at Garibaldi's statement that everyone in the room looked at her as though she were insane. The truth was she felt like she had to either laugh or go insane at this point. The last few days had just been too much too fast. "You're probably right, Mr. Garibaldi," she finally replied. "Even as good as this guy apparently is at mind control, someone who could force someone to open a door without a line of sight, even despite the presence of opposed telepaths, would have been able to kill everyone in this room without breaking a sweat.  
"I don't suppose that given how much worse the situation is than we thought, you'd be willing to let me bring in some more psi cops and a few Bloodhound Units to help out, Captain?" Lisa asked hopefully.   
"No, I'm afraid that's completely out of the question."  
Something in Lisa just snapped, and she abandoned any attempt at tact. "You know, I'm not a complete moron," she said angrily. "You people aren't worried about your privacy; you are trying to hide something so big it would ruin your careers if it got out. Otherwise why risk your lives by hamstringing me at every turn when I try to help you? Hell, forget invasion of privacy, at this point I'd actually be _within_ the rules for telepaths to request scans for all of you."  
With an effort, Lisa stopped her tirade, but her patience was at an end. "You know what, to hell with it. It's Bester's job to figure out just what you damned mundanes are up to, and I'm not paid enough to do his job and mine. So here's the deal: we continue to do things my way, and I promise my report to Mr. Bester will have more holes in it than the plot of the last Rebo and Zooty movie." If there was one thing her job involved that Lisa was good at besides messing with people's heads, it was getting mundanes to do what she wanted.  
It was now Sheridan's turn to become irate, and Lisa sensed she had just used up most of the goodwill she had generated in saving the ranger. "You aren't leaving me with any alternative," he said. "What do you want us to do next?"  
"Our only mistake was not having enough fire power in the trap. We'll remove Ambassador Delenn from the station as you suggest, and both I and the Minbari telepaths will guard Ivanova. Sooner or later the killer's compulsions will override any form of common sense, and I'll have more than enough time to gun him down with the Minbari telepaths helping me block."  
"How about we just make up some excuse to get Ivanova off the station, and then you can actually go Down Below and find this bastard?" Garibaldi asked. Sheridan nodded in affirmation.  
"And risk getting ambushed in some close-quarters situation? My odds are bad enough even if I do get to dictate the location of the fight by setting some bait. No, after what I've seen here, I'm not going Down Below unless there is no alterative."  
Ivanova, who had simply been stewing silently at the proceedings, finally spoke. "I'm glad that to you all I am is 'bait.' You psi cops are all alike; you've got no regard for human life!"  
Lisa felt her cheeks redden at Ivanova's remarks. "And I'm glad that to you all I am is convenient scapegoat for your mother's death!" Lisa immediately regretted letting that slip. The one thing she had promised herself after first reading Ivanova's file was that she was not going to mention the mother.  
"You God damn-!" Ivanova screamed. She actually lunged for Collins.  
"Whoa, whoa!" Garibaldi yelled, interposing himself before the inevitable violence that would have resulted. "Calm down! Look, this has been really difficult for all of us, but it's not going to get any better if we go to each other's throats!" He continued to look back and forth between Ivanova and Collins, to make sure neither one made any further threatening move.  
Lisa realized her fists were balled up and partly raised; still worse and unknown to everyone around her, in her mind she had been half way to preparing a fatal telepathic attack. Ta'Wher, she also realized, had actually put a hand on her shoulder to physically restrain her from leaping forward. As she finally relaxed her stance and the Narn released her, Collins realized that what Ivanova had said had hit much too close to home. Lisa had almost completely lost control.  
Sheridan returned order to the situation. "I don't approve of your new plan, Ms. Collins, but under duress we'll continue to cooperate. Now if you'll kindly escort Ambassador Delenn to her ship?" he asked impatiently.  
"Of course, Captain." Collins replied. "You'd better come along, Commander," Lisa told Ivanova without actually looking at her. "It would be an awful shame if you wandered off and the Mindblanker raped your mind and killed you."  
  
  
Earhart's, the Babylon 5 Officer's club, was probably not a place where one normally saw a Narn, a psi cop, and a group of Minbari, Ta'Wher reflected. In fact, when he realized they were all in a bar it sounded like the start of some ridiculous human joke. Many of the regular patrons had gradually become nervous at the sight of the unusual visitors and had departed. However, upon going off duty Ivanova had been very insistent that she needed a drink to calm her nerves. Actually, it was turning out to be more than one drink.   
Ambassador Delenn had safely left the station. At least that much had gone according to plan. Lisa and Ivanova had not spoken directly to each other since his friend's callously indifferent remark about the Commander's possible death some hours earlier, which was likely the reason there had been no further threat of violence between the two.  
Ta'Wher had to admit to himself, he had never been more concerned about Lisa's mental state. She had once confided in him that, as a P12 who could kill someone with her mind almost as easily as she could lift a finger, she was often terrified of what would happen if she ever lost control. Now Ta'Wher was equally concerned. Telepathy, he reflected, was a gift with far too high a price.  
At the moment, he was seated at the club's bar. Several seats down to his left sat Ivanova, with empty glasses spread before her. Several seats to his right was Lisa, who slowly nursed a glass of water, rarely even looking up from it, such was her distress.  
The true irony was that, as far as Ta'Wher could tell, the real stress that was undermining the psi cop came not from the criminal she hunted, but from her charge she was guarding. Ta'Wher would perhaps never understand how someone who could almost unflinchingly risk her life again and again in the performance of her duty could also become completely rattled and defensive when a simple social interaction turned awkward or invasive. Actually, in a way he did comprehend the how, just not the why: Lisa feared being understood, or perhaps somehow "found out," more than she feared death.   
It was a strange thing, but one of the roots was obvious. Every time Lisa described anything about what it had been like to be raised from birth by the Psi Corps, Ta'Wher was horrified that anyone could treat children in such a manner. It seemed a wonder that anyone raised by the Corps could function at all. Unknown personality disorders were probably the least significant form of mental illness inflicted on most future psi cops.  
Commander Ivanova was a more subtle mystery: he understood from the Psi Corps' file why the officer might hate and fear a psi cop, but her reaction seemed to be over the top somehow. While the rest of her fellow officers had grudgingly concluded that Lisa had no ulterior motive for coming to the station, even after all that had passed Ivanova was still convinced otherwise. Also, although she hid it very well, somehow the presence of a psi cop frightened Ivanova just as deeply as Ivanova's cutting remarks threw Lisa off balance.  
As Ivanova sat with her head and an elbow resting on the bar before her, staring blankly at an empty glass, Lisa looked meekly up from her water. "I could kill for drink," she said to no one in particular.  
"Yes, I'm sure you would do that," Ivanova replied emotionlessly. Her eyes did not even waiver from the empty glass.  
Lisa slammed her gloved fists down onto the bar so loudly that almost everyone in club looked in her direction. She turned to Ivanova and glared. "You know, I can do this just as well from the other side of the room." Lisa then immediately walked away from the bar, avoiding the group of Minbari to sit silently by herself.  
Shaking his head in frustration, Ta'Wher rose from his seat and then sat down next to Ivanova. "I sincerely wish you would refrain from making such remarks."  
"Well, if she's going to set up the joke so obviously, I've got to knock it down. It almost feels like we're a comedy team."  
Ivanova sat up and finally looked at Ta'Wher. She somehow looked completely sober, as if despite all the alcohol she had consumed she was cursed to remain that way. "Can I ask you a question?"  
"Yes," Ta'Wher replied.  
"What the hell is your story anyway? You follow this psi cop around like a damn puppy dog. Did you get brainwashed or something?"  
Ta'Wher felt like squirming in his seat. This was perhaps the one story he most hated to discuss with a stranger, and yet it was also the only thing that might mollify the Earth Force officer's attitude toward his friend.  
"Before I met Lisa I was in charge of a moderately important accounting group on homeworld that kept tabs on the doings of important government officials, including occasionally members of the Kha'Ri. It was a job with many privileges, for those who determined my pay were also subject to my audits." Ta'Wher grinned in a melancholy way. "They had every incentive to send me on as many paid vacations as I would accept, just to keep me out of their bank accounts. I and my family were truly blessed to see so many worlds throughout our colonies and throughout the places that compose the League of Nonaligned Worlds.  
"Our first... that is to say our only trip to Earth Alliance space was a complete vacation package, a whirlwind tour scheduled with your homeworld's many historical places. Rome, Paris, Tokyo, Jakarta... for almost an entire month as time is told on your world, we traveled from city to city. Our personal tour guides in each city showed us many fascinating things about your history and culture. By the end of the first week we had all agreed that our next vacation would also be on Earth." Ta'Wher looked wistfully off into the distance. "Your tourism industry is remarkably efficient.  
"The next to last city on our itinerary was Boston... landing point of religious pilgrims, home of humans who wear feathers on their heads in order to destroy tea, the capital of the only state in the Union to not vote to reelect Richard Milhouse Nixon to a second term in office... it's amazing the strange trivia one retains.  
"One evening we were all gathered in our hotel room to watch a movie, and there was a knock at the door. I honestly can't remember anything immediately after that. I don't believe the memory was destroyed, I think somehow I simply chose to forget even after my memories were restored. But I am getting ahead of myself.  
"I and my family were victims of the killer who would eventually become known as the Boston Mindblanker. We were the first nonhuman victims in fact.  
"It was by an incredible stroke of fortune that I am alive today. Although Lisa has always insisted to me rather vehemently that the Universe knows no design but random chance and boundless stupidity, the array of circumstances that saved me were rather incredible and fill me with purpose. As the Mindblanker began his terrible work, the food we had requested earlier from room service arrived. The killer was at that time still just beginning his murderous rampage, and had none of the arrogance that characterized his later behavior, when he left messages to the media claiming he was unstoppable. He panicked after being disturbed at his work, and fled the room without even erasing the memory of the young man who had brought the food.  
"In the lobby of that very hotel was young Lisa Collins, a rookie officer of the Boston Meta Pol Station who was following up a lead on a group of dust smugglers. She quickly learned of the commotion above her and went to investigate. Although not yet familiar with the Mindblanker, as a psi cop she could quickly identify victims of a telepathic assault.  
"It was not until much later that Lisa finally revealed to me the details of what happened next, for she feared I would not be able to bear the pain. When she had first entered the room, only I and my mate were still alive. Lisa first attempted to help my mate... unfortunately, there was some sort of trap the killer had left in her mind that caused her to die instantly." Ta'Wher leaned forward onto the bar and lowered his head for a moment. "Using what she learned from this failed attempt, Lisa was able to save my own life.  
"I... I cannot even describe how terrified I was upon awaking. The Mindblanker had stolen my identity. To be sure, I retained my language skills, some bits and pieces of learning and old history, even some knowledge from my career... but everything else was gone. Every person, every image, every event removed. I did not even learn the dead Narns in the room had been my family until Lisa told me. When she did I felt nothing but confusion.  
"The Psi Corps, of course, would have preferred to eliminate me to help hide the crime from the normal population, but Lisa prevented this by pointing out to her superiors that with the cover-up failing, I could be held up as an example of someone 'saved' by the Corps to placate the media. In fact, the story did finally break only a few weeks later.  
"I believe there was, however, another motivation at work beyond simple convenience that led Lisa Collins to intercede on my behalf. There is a belief among some humans that if you save someone's life, you become responsible for that person. This Lisa also believed. Although at that time she was very much bigoted against all beings outside of the Psi Corps, she had an innate sense of duty and obligation that was stronger still.  
"The following months are mostly a blur to me. Once in a while the Psi Corps trotted me out for public relations purposes, but mostly I was a prisoner within the Meta Pol Station. The Narn Regime attempted to secure my release, but was not highly motivated to do so and soon became mired in the interspecies bureaucracy. None in the Corps cared for my mental state, save Lisa. During that time she gave me a copy of the Book of G'Quan, as it turned out my old copy taken from the evidence room. Although I had no memory of my being a follower of G'Quan before the attack, upon seeing his wisdom I was brought into the fold a second time. Humans sometimes mention 'a silver lining in every cloud,' and I must say that in the end the ordeal greatly strengthened my faith.  
"In the end, the Mindblanker was apprehended, due mostly to his own hubris. I was allowed to attend the trial. I must confess that when the trial was almost at an end, I had no plans for the future. I was afraid that if I went home, I would only upset those who had known me in my previous life. Only G'Quan sustained me.  
"At the sentencing, MacFarlane attempted to escape but was fatally wounded. Lisa went into his mind and, at great personal risk, obtained my memories and restored them to me. Her mind was so badly injured in the attempt that it was two weeks before she regained consciousness.  
"After that, I choose to remain in Boston, for I felt I owed her a great debt and I wished to find a way to repay it. Although she initially rebuffed me, I soon found that Lisa Collins was perhaps one of the loneliest beings in the Universe. Despite all her misgivings over my being an 'alien' and a 'mundane,' she was desperate for the company." Ta'Wher smiled, reminiscing privately about the awkwardness of those days.  
"Since then, I have ever so slowly introduced her to a wider Universe than the Psi Corps, and she has grown to understand the 'aliens' and 'mundanes' of the galaxy are also worthy beneficiaries of her abilities and bravery. I have seen her work to save lives the Corps would have discarded, though it cost her allies and promotions. I must admit I still consider her a work in progress, but then aren't we all?" Ta'Wher couldn't help but smile.  
"So you see I would rather appreciate it if you stop telling Lisa she is a monster. When you keep telling someone that, after a while that person may begin to believe it, and I would not appreciate all my hard work with her being undone."  
Ivanova waited a moment to see if Ta'Wher would continue. "Wow," she said, "I guess truth really is stranger than fiction. But let me ask you this: while your friend is doing a good deed here and there, how many rogue telepaths is she blissfully sending off to be tortured in reeducation camps? How many 'mundanes' who ran the telepath Underground Railroad are imprisoned or 'missing' because of her? How many have died because she still needs to play within the Psi Corps rules?"  
"As I said... a work in progress. I know she will come around."  
"Yes, well I wish you all the best of luck with that," Ivanova said sarcastically. "But as far as I'm concerned, there are no more good psi cops than there were good Nazis." She made this last statement just loud enough for Lisa to hear. "Now if you'll excuse me..." she indicated the restrooms with a glance.  
"Oh, of course." Ta'Wher said unhappily. Ta'Wher considered the issue a bit less black and white than Ivanova had portrayed it. Nevertheless, what she had said was at the very heart of his own apprehension and misgivings.  
Ivanova rose and headed for the facilities, and a short time after she disappeared from sight, Ta'Wher heard Lisa's voice distinctly in his mind.  
_Where is Ivanova going?_  
_Bathroom,_ he thought. Lisa could pick up his surface thoughts fairly easily when she was concentrating on him.  
_Don't you think we should have checked it first???_  
"By G'Quan!" Ta'Wher cried out, and bartender in front of him jumped. Had he really been so caught up in his worries and storytelling that he had made such a lapse?  
They both jumped out of their seats and raced after Ivanova. The Minbari telepaths were clearly confused and did not react immediately.  
Ta'Wher was closer to that side of the club and reached it first, nearly running into the cloaked grey figure, wearing a mask that looked like drama face of the Drama and Comedy masks. Ta'Wher's reaction was so swift that his sword would have killed any normal human, however the telepath could read his mind and that improved the human's response. Rather than slicing through the monster's chest, Ta'Wher's sword merely cut into his arm.  
In the very next moment Ta'Wher's vision fled, just as it had in the warehouse back home. As he lowered his sword his momentum carried him into a wall. The weapon dropped from his grasp as he fell backwards.  
The next thing Ta'Wher heard after hitting the ground was the repeated blasts of a PPG, followed by the startled cries of some of the officers in the club. Then, only moments after it had been taken away, Ta'Wher found his vision restored. Apparently Lisa had been very quick to figure out what had happened.  
His friend was running towards the exit of the club, in pursuit of the Mindblanker. Lucef called out Ivanova's name, and cursing at the reminder Lisa stopped herself and turned back toward the restrooms. Ta'Wher regained his feet, and after retrieving and sheathing his sword followed her in.  
Ta'Wher expected the worst: the murderer had had more than enough time to kill Commander Ivanova. Lisa had once claimed that in three or four seconds a specifically trained P12 such as herself could induce fatal brain damage in an unguarded mind; the killer had been given much more time. He was shocked to find Ivanova sitting on the floor, obviously shaken but very much alive and seemingly unharmed.  



	5. Babylon 5: Shadows of the Mind Part 5

Michael Garibaldi had been only a short distance away from Earhart's when he heard the cries of panic, followed by what he sincerely hoped were not blasts from a PPG. A few minutes before that he had been informed over the link that Ivanova was drinking herself into a stupor there. After notifying the Captain, he had agreed to check on Ivanova himself: he could remember past instances when a mixture of Ivanova and alcohol had led to violence. Specifically, the parallels between this and the time Colonel Ben Zayn had gone after his friend Jeff Sinclair were too close for comfort.  
Expecting a barroom brawl gone horribly awry, Garibaldi was surprised to find a distraught Ivanova being helped into a chair by the psi cop's Narn bodyguard. Also nearby were the psi cop and the Minbari telepaths. He rushed to Ivanova's side.  
"What happened here?"  
"There was an attack on Commander Ivanova," Lucef said quietly, so that the club's patrons would not hear. "The killer fled through the doorway where you entered moments ago."  
"But I didn't see-" Michael started. "Oh, hell." He realized it was very likely that the Mindfragger had just erased his memory. Garibaldi felt for a moment as if he might throw up at the thought of it.  
He lowered himself into Ivanova's line of sight. "Susan, can you hear me?"   
Ivanova nodded to Garibaldi. "I'm okay."   
She sounded anything but okay. Maybe she was just badly frightened, but then Michael had no idea how she had been attacked. "Have any of you had a chance to call Med Lab yet?"  
"No," Collins said.  
Garibaldi quickly called for medical assistance, and soon afterward Captain Sheridan entered the club. "What's happening here? I thought I heard shouting."  
Collins said softly to Garibaldi, "I think you better get these people out of here first."  
Garibaldi addressed the patrons, most of whom were murmuring to each other suspiciously, "All right, I want everyone outta here, right now!" Anything else like this and the psi cop could kiss her cover-up goodbye. The officers quickly filed out.  
Sheridan turned expectantly to the psi cop. "Captain, he attacked from the lavatory," she said, then turned to the Narn. "Damn it, I can't believe we forgot to check in there! We would have had him cornered."  
"Yeah, or maybe you were a little ticked off with Ivanova and decided to 'forget' on purpose," Garibaldi said angrily.  
"If I were going to kill her, I would have done it myself a lot earlier than this," Collins said. "Besides, she's obviously fine... although that does beg the question of why."  
"Indeed," Ta'Wher said, "from the profile I would have assumed it were impossible for the killer not to attack such a victim."  
The psi cop crossed her arms. "Exactly. There's just no way that psycho could ignore someone who is a female authority figure and a mundane. I-" she stopped. Garibaldi suddenly became very worried. "Oh, son of a-"  
That had been everyone's greatest fear, that the psi cop would discover Susan was a telepath. She had hidden it so well that Garibaldi himself had not learned of it until last year. And because she had kept her talent hidden from the Psi Corps, that made her a rogue.  
What followed happened very quickly. Ivanova rose from the seat, drawing her weapon. The psi cop went for her own PPG. Moving mostly on instinct, Garibaldi went for his own sidearm.  
"Susan, no!" Garibaldi did not think she had even really heard the Captain's order. Before he could finish aiming Garibaldi found a blade, stained with blood, held just below his throat. He froze.  
Ivanova and the psi cop were now standing only a meter apart, both with weapons aimed at each other. Garibaldi was amazed Susan had not already fired. The Minbari telepaths had not moved, but then they were unarmed. Garibaldi did not think they could overpower the psi cop, either physically or telepathically, fast enough to make a difference.  
"Very frustrating, isn't it?" Collins asked Ivanova. Her voice sounded slightly strained. "You will yourself to pull the trigger, and nothing happens. It's as if your hand has a mind of its own." So Ivanova had tried to fire, but she had not been faster than the speed of thought. The psi cop reached her free hand carefully toward Ivanova's weapon. She pushed it slightly aside and then removed it from Susan's still fingers. In her other hand, Collins' PPG never wavered in its aim toward Ivanova.  
"I knew it," Susan said bitterly, her eyes filling with tears, "I knew that if I let you near me, you'd destroy my life."  
"You think this is what I wanted?" Collins asked angrily. She released Ivanova from her paralyzing hold, and Ivanova lowered her arm but made no other move. "Damn it, you're probably not even a P1. And here I have to haul you in." Collins lowered her PPG. Garibaldi returned his own weapon slowly to its holster, and the Narn lowered his sword.  
"I won't join the Corps, and I won't take the sleepers," Ivanova said. "Just kill me now." If the psi cop scanned Ivanova, she might learn of the conspiracy against President Clark. So Susan saw her own death as the only way out.  
"You just don't get it, do you? I don't want to turn you in, but I don't have any damn choice! Psi cops may get a lot of leeway in interpreting the rules, but aiding a rogue in escaping the Corps is one of the only unpardonable sins. What the hell kind of traitor and hypocrite would I be if I broke that oath?"  
"Didn't you also promise the Corps you would hide the existence of these murders?" Sheridan asked. "That can't happen if you turn Susan in. Now you said yourself she isn't even a P1, so she's not a threat to anyone. Just let her go."  
Garibaldi was shocked to see the psi cop's eyes welling up with tears. Embarrassed, she wiped them away. "I hate this so much, I hate all of it. But P12's are so rare every one of us has to try for being a psi cop." She turned to Ivanova. "You think your tale of childhood woe is so great? At least you've met your mother. At least you haven't had your whole damn _life_ planned out for you before you were even born!  
"I suppose when you were little, you had all kinds of hopes and dreams. I had those. When I was six, I remember I wanted to be a ballerina. Isn't that a laugh, isn't that just a fraggin' _adorable_ cliché, a little girl who wanted to be a ballerina.  
"Only it's not adorable at all when you're the Psi Corps and you want the little girl to grow up to be a psi cop. I must have made the mistake of telling one of the other children about my dream, and the little snitch must have ratted me out to an adult.  
"You'd think they would have recognized it as just a passing phase and let it go, but that's not how the Corps works. They want obedience now. So one day during class the Grins came for me... hell, we'd be here forever if I explained what they were, but all you need to know is one of their duties was to mete out punishment when we misbehaved. They dragged me off somewhere and I can't remember a damn thing that happened after that. All I do know is that from that day on, every time I saw any sort of performance art on a view screen I became nauseous. Hell, one time a couple years ago I chased a suspect into an opera house and I actually did throw up on myself. The worst part of it all is that even with a P12 rating I still can't find what they did to me and fix it!  
"But I digress. I suppose if I have a point in all this Commander, it's that you can sit there thinking I'm some sort of evil bitch who wanted to ruin you all along, but the fact of the matter is I don't have any damn choice at all."  
"You do have a choice," Sheridan said. "I've just shown you one. So what are you going to do with it?" Garibaldi noticed the Captain move his hand slightly closer to his sidearm. Michael knew if the psi cop chose wrong, he might have to go for his own PPG again, only this time stopping would not be an option.  
Behind him, he heard the medical team arrive, potentially more casualties if this turned violent. "I think..." the psi cop said. "I think what the Corps doesn't know won't hurt it.   
"You know, it's funny: being a psi cop was the only thing I ever thought I was any good at, but apparently I'm terrible at that too." Collins returned Ivanova's PPG to her, and then put away her weapon. The Narn followed suit.   
Doctor Franklin approached. "What just happened here?" he asked, alarmed.  
"We'll fill you in a minute, Doc," Michael said. "But right now I think you better have a look at Ivanova."  
Ivanova hesitated for a moment with the PPG in hand before putting it away.  
  
  
Once they reached Med Lab, Dr. Franklin had Ivanova sit on a table, and he began a cursory examination. The Doctor sent away the rest of his personnel so those who knew about the killer could talk freely. While Garibaldi presumably filled in Franklin on the near disaster at Earhart's, Lisa took Sheridan and Ta'Wher aside.  
"Captain, you need to lock down this station immediately, before the Mindblanker escapes. Without any targets of overwhelming importance, I believe he might try to flee Earth space. If he decides to prey on a race that doesn't have any strong telepaths, there's no telling how many might die." Ta'Wher looked disturbed by this, as there were no telepaths among his people.  
"As much as I wish I could let him go, you're right. This has to end here."  
"I'd suggest an unknown illness has killed several lurkers, and you've decided to quarantine the station. When this is all over, you can say it was determined that the disease was not communicable, but was contracted when the lurkers ate some spoiled alien food Down Below."  
"That has the advantage of fitting what most of the station knows about the attacks," Sheridan replied.  
"Well, when you said yesterday that I had a lot of experience establishing plausible deniability, you were right," Collins said. "As for your security guards and officers who have seen a little more, I'll just have to trust that you can talk them into showing the appropriate discretion."  
"Of course. I take it you'll be heading Down Below?"  
"Yes, the Mindblanker has probably retreated there to mull his options... I'd also like you to seal off all of Brown Section under the same pretenses I just mentioned. After I go in, don't open it back up until I give the all clear."  
"And if you never do give the all clear?"  
"Then you can either call the Corps for help or let him escape."  
Lisa considered the situation before continuing. "I'd like to bring the Minbari telepaths with me, of course. And some of your security guards, preferably the ones who were guarding Ambassador Delenn's quarters. They already know there's a rogue telepath on the loose, so there's no concern about letting out more information."  
"Do you really think having any number of security guards along will help?" Sheridan asked with a touch of suspicion.  
"I'll take any added distraction I can get. Don't worry, I'm sure the Minbari will keep me from 'silencing' them," Collins said archly.  
"Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you would do anything like that."  
"No, you meant to keep it to yourself," she said. "But let's not get into that again. I'd also like to talk with Commander Ivanova; it's possible she saw something useful."  
Sheridan nodded, and then used his link to contact C&C about the quarantine. Lisa and Ta'Wher now returned to where Dr. Franklin was continuing his ministrations. "How is she, Doctor?"  
"Physically, she's just has a few bumps and bruises, but after what's happened I'm more concerned about her mental state."  
Ivanova looked up at Collins. "When he touched my mind... I can't even describe it, it was the most sick and disturbing thing I ever felt in my entire life."  
Collins nodded. "I remember my first mental contact with a serial killer. Like most things, the passage of time takes the edge off, but it's not the kind of experience you ever really forget... I'm sorry you had to go through that, I was completely negligent to not be watching you more carefully."  
"I guess we were too busy driving each other nuts to pay much attention to safety," Ivanova said ruefully.  
"I hate to question a witness about a traumatic experience right after it happens, but there's still the possibility of more deaths if I waste any more time. Did you see anything that might help us identify the killer? We could possibly learn something from the blood on Ta'Wher's sword, but I can't wait that long before I begin searching Brown Section."  
The Commander hesitated for a moment. "I... I think he took off his mask, right before he went in my mind... I'm not sure what he looked like, and I don't remember anything else until you both helped me out of the room."  
Sheridan approached. "You have your quarantine, Ms. Collins. Security is closing off Brown Section. I wish I didn't have to seal so many people in there with the Mindblanker, but giving him the run of the whole station would just make this even worse."  
Dr. Franklin now turned to Ta'Wher. "If you'll come with me, I'll take a blood sample from your sword."  
"Of course, Doctor."  
Lisa considered Ivanova's brief account. "Commander, I'm loath to suggest this, but if you concentrated on the memory and allowed me a very light scan, I might be able to see the killer. With both a face and DNA evidence, we could search the records much faster."  
"No, I'm sorry, that can't happen."  
"I know you're upset, Commander, but I promise you this will not be at all invasive. As long as you don't fight me, you'll hardly even notice my presence."  
"I'm afraid that's still not an option, Ms. Collins," Captain Sheridan said.  
"Please don't even tell me there is another secret here that is even worse than harboring a rogue telepath," Collins said, dismayed. She put her hand to bridge of her nose, as if fighting off a headache. "I can't believe anyone actually leaves this station with their sanity intact.  
"Okay, I have another option that may not work, but there is no risk to any of you in trying. Commander, you can try to send the memory to me."  
"I've never been able to send anything strong enough to cross any distance, or be understood by anyone other than my Mother."  
Reluctantly, Lisa removed a glove. Doing so made her feel almost naked. "I'm very good at picking up faint messages, but you are right about your lack of telepathic ability. We'll need to be in physical contact." She turned to Sheridan. "Commander Ivanova would be able to sense instantly if I were abusing our contact. And you might want to consider that if I were inclined to break my promise not to scan any you, I've already had about a hundred chances to do so."  
Sheridan was clearly unhappy with the situation. "Susan, is what she says true?"  
"Yes, although I'm almost sure it won't work. But with so many lives in the balance, I guess we probably should try everything."  
"All right, then. Let's give it a shot."  
"Thank you, Captain. Commander, if the first attempt does not work, I may ask you try a few more times. If you feel fatigued or become at all disoriented you should refuse. Do you understand?" Ivanova nodded. "Please give me your hand."  
After she took Ivanova's hand, Collins closed her eyes and waited for a moment. "Okay... did you just try to send something?"  
"Yes."  
"I definitely felt it. I think if you try one more-"  
Then Lisa saw it, almost as clearly as if it were happening at that very moment. She was prone on the floor of the bathroom, feeling helpless and afraid. The killer removed his mask-  
_(that's impossible!!!)_  
-and touched her mind. Beyond the terror she felt at touching such a sick mind, there was a sense of disappointment in the force that was invading her thoughts: she was not one of _them_ after all; there was no reason to kill her. Then the killer heard someone approach, replaced the mask, and retreated for the exit.  
"That... that just can't be," Collins said, dismayed.  
"What did you see?" Sheridan asked.  
"It was Kevin... my intern Kevin Tang. Back home, when I thought he was killed, he must have altered my perceptions somehow. It's just- there's just no way he could have done something like that." She paused for a moment. "I suppose that's left me with more questions than answers, but it doesn't change what I have to do." She released Ivanova's hand and quickly replaced the glove.  
Sheridan turned to his security chief. "Mr. Garibaldi, I want you to gather the same people you kept in Delenn's quarters, and then meet up with Ms. Collins and the Minbari telepaths outside of Brown Sector. The only other death on this station today is going to be the Mindblanker himself."  
  
  
Brown Section seemed a wretched place to eek out an existence, Lisa Collins reflected. Not that Boston lacked the homeless and other tough luck cases, but the number of people who had become trapped in the darker reaches of Babylon 5 was surprising. Even worse was that she might very well have to traverse most of the place herself; the group could not simply split up to cover more ground.  
Lisa was walking beside Garibaldi, with Ta'Wher immediately behind her. He was followed by the various security officers and finally the Minbari telepaths bringing up the rear. Collins hoped that by keeping telepaths at both ends of group they could avoid a costly ambush.   
Although most of her concentration was focused on searching for any sign of the rogue telepath, she spoke to the security chief in a low voice. "Something's not right here, and I mean beyond all the obvious things that aren't right."  
"I think I know what you mean. Usually when I hear about psi cops chasing rogues, it's the rogue who hasn't got great odds. It almost seems like this guy's got total control, the way he just disappears and reappears like he does. And here we are with almost a damn army, and I still can't say I feel all that confident."  
"Exactly. Ever since this started I've been more than one step behind. I feel like I'm playing Elmer Fudd to his Bugs Bunny, if you'll pardon an obscure reference."  
"You know Loony Toons?" Garibaldi asked, amazed.  
"Well, yeah, although if you want to talk old time cartoons, my favorite is the Simp-"  
With a loud metallic clang, a cylindrical object landed in front of Lisa. There was a hissing sound and before she could react, the corridor receded from sight and she felt herself falling.  
  
  
Lisa awoke to the sound of Ta'Wher groaning, at first feeling nothing but confusion. As she became aware of the terrible pain in her head, she made a similar sound. Briefly she opened her eyes, but the light seemed so bright it was hard to keep them open.  
"Congratulations. You've made it back to consciousness," Kevin Tang told her.  
Instinctively, she struck at him telepathically with all the deadly force of P12 mindshredder. Her former intern blocked the attack as if it were nothing, and then smashed her own defenses as easily as if she had been a mundane. His mind clamped down on her nervous system so hard she could barely breathe, let alone move. Lisa wheezed and struggled to remain conscious. After a few moments, he loosened his hold enough so that she could breathe and speak.  
"My abilities have increased even more, since I figured out how to undo the tinkering the Psi Corps did to our mutual friend," Tang told her.  
"What friend?" Lisa asked confused.  
"I suppose you wouldn't know. He liked MacFarlane, and he likes me, but he never really cared for you. He never contacted you directly, since he couldn't trust you."  
Collins vaguely recalled MacFarlane mentioning a 'friend,' right before she had shot him. "I don't suppose you'd care to explain that." She tried to get a sense of the room, but the brightness made it very difficult to see.  
"Stalling for time, Ms. Collins? Resourceful to the end I see. Unfortunately, since this part of the station was sealed off by Sheridan there isn't much chance of rescue. We have all the time in the world to chat. Neither of you can move, and all your friends are unconscious and restrained. Although the Minbari seem to be having a bad reaction to the gas."  
"What gas?"  
"Oh, they probably still haven't noticed its missing back at the Meta Pol Station." Lisa was nonplussed, and Tang looked puzzled at this. "You mean you honestly didn't know about the nerve gas they keep at the station? I knew they kept you out of the loop, but wow." He laughed. "After they saw how rowdy the mundanes got during the MacFarlane trial, some of your superiors ordered it for a little added protection.  
"Of course, I had to lower the concentration a lot for you to survive exposure. Even with such a small amount you must be feeling some nasty side effects." He moved his hand suddenly and Lisa's gaze followed it. "I'm surprised you can see me from this distance at all. I imagine I brought enough with me to kill half the population of this station. But then if I just bleed the atmosphere rapidly in to space, I can kill almost everyone without using it. Waste not, want not." He smiled as if describing some minor piece of mischief.  
"How could you-"  
"Between taking all the passwords from the minds of Sheridan and Garibaldi, and all the neat security cracking equipment I also borrowed from the Corps, gaining control of Babylon 5 was laughably easy. No one's noticed yet, since I haven't done anything overt, but I can strike as soon as I please."  
"Then why go after Delenn and Ivanova yourself?"  
"I enjoy a good hunt, I suppose. You know how we psi cops are. I must say I was surprised by how well Ambassador Delenn was guarded. I'd expected you would have underestimated me a lot more. I really would have preferred to kill her, too.  
Kevin again smiled pleasantly. "If there are no further questions?" Lisa sat silently. "Well, I can think of one thing you must be wondering: 'Why am I still alive when he could have killed me at any time?' The answer is very simple. I'd like you die knowing why you were killed, and my friend wants you to die rather slowly and painfully. You see he found it very inconvenient that-"  
Lisa attempted one last, feeble attack on Tang's defenses. "That was rather disap-" he began.  
_Rank amateur,_ she thought contemptuously. All the telepathic power in the world could not make up for a lack of experience. Ta'Wher, forgotten by the killer and freed from paralysis by Lisa during the distraction, jumped to his feet and ran Kevin Tang through with his sword. Ta'Wher caused even more damage removing the sword, and a disgusting mess of internal organs slid out of Kevin's midsection. He collapsed with a look of surprise on his face.  
"The sword is mightier than the PPG," Ta'Wher proclaimed. "As I've maintained all along." He shook his head slightly, still fighting off the effects of the diluted nerve gas.  
"Well, okay, so he took away my weapon, but did not take you seriously enough to bother taking your sword." Lisa sat up and, after feeling the increased pain in her head, regretted it. "That doesn't mean that swords are superior to PPGs."  
"And yet, here I stand with the dreaded Mindblanker vanquished before me."  
"We've had this argument a million times, Ta'Wher: just because you've had such a run of luck with a pointy piece of metal doesn't make it better than technology several millennia more recent." It occurred to Lisa what a ridiculous conversation she was having, but then she was a bit lightheaded and dazed. "Now help me up, we'd better find a BabCom unit. It sounded like the Minbari need medical attention." She noticed her PPG was lying next to MacFarlane and retrieved it after coming shakily to her feet.  
As she was about to holster her weapon she noticed movement near Kevin Tang's body. Immediately, a powerful telepathic force paralyzed her. A small, translucent object shaped like a spider crawled out of the wound Ta'Wher had left on the corpse.  
_This_ has _to be a hallucination caused by the gas,_ Lisa thought desperately.  
_Not at all,_ the creature 'cast to her. The touch of its mind was disturbing but familiar. Again she was reminded of MacFarlane. _I'm quite real. Increases in telepathic power don't come from a vacuum, you know. I helped MacFarlane fulfill his ambitions, and with a little nudge I convinced Tang to follow the same path._  
_What are you?_ Lisa asked. But some of the pieces were finally falling into place.  
_I'm the end result of the Corps' little 'black project' that started all this. When I first awoke I'd been damaged by the Psi Corps' miserable scientists. I could remember nothing of my masters, except their design: evolution through conflict. After I first touched MacFarlane's mind I learned of his great hatred for the ungifted humans you call 'mundanes.' Although I wasn't able to use all of my latent abilities, I augmented his powers so he could strike at mundanes. I'd naively hoped my attacks would precipitate a war between telepaths and mundanes, but I hadn't realized at the time how common serial killers were among your people._  
_Your involvement set me back by several years,_ the creature told her with unmistakable bitterness. _When you killed MacFarlane, I had no choice but to enter your body. You disgusting creature: duty and obedience frame your existence. You'd be a perfect puppet for a Vorlon,_ it snarled. _Although I tried to influence you to follow a better path, that damn Narn kept pushing you further and further away from where I needed your thoughts to be! Filthy mundane!_  
The front legs of the spider-thing twitched in the air before it continued. _Finally, when Kevin Tang arrived I found the perfect vessel: a greater telepath than MacFarlane, but with the same hatred for mundanes burning within him. Not only did Tang embrace my help, but as he told you, he used his abilities to unlock the rest of my powers and memories. Now I remember my masters, and my core ability to infest humans is improved considerably. You'll be interested to know that I have no telepathic powers of my own. I'm simply emitting chemical signals in order to use your own telepathic powers against you. Not bad, huh?_ Lisa heard the creature's laughter in her mind.  
_Your killing of Tang is only a minor inconvenience at this point. While I would have preferred to kill you and continue on in Kevin Tang's body, with my complete abilities I'll be able to control your mind directly. Forcing you to do my work is revenge enough. In fact, one of your first jobs will be to set a timer that will kill every living thing on this station. When the media learns that a rogue psi cop killed a quarter of a million beings, it should advance my goal of a telepath war considerably._   
_But as for that miserable Narn... as Kevin started to explain before you so rudely killed him, I kept the Narn alive this long because I wanted to show him a memory I found in your mind. Before he dies, I want him to hate you as much as_ I _hate you._  
Lisa struggled to regain control of her mind in vain. _Please not that!_ But she felt herself and Ta'Wher descend into the mindscape of that transport...  
  
**2254 (Six Years Ago)**  
  
Lisa Collins stared blankly out the window of the transport, not really seeing the grey tarmac of Logan Spaceport. She had never felt so depressed or despondent in her whole life. Samantha was dead. Killed by some filthy, worthless mundane. Lisa had accepted that Sam was dead on an intellectual level, but emotionally it just did not seem to register. She had not even been able to cry at the funeral, but only sit there numbly as the Corps had put Sam to rest.  
"Ms. Collins?"  
Lisa looked up from her reverie and was shocked to see someone she had known previously only by pictures and reputation. She quickly stood from her seat. "Oh my- Mr. Bester! We- I, I mean I've always wanted to meet you. You've done so much for telepaths everywhere!" Although Lisa had a great deal of respect for Alfred Bester, Sam had been almost obsessed with him. Lisa remembered one time shortly after graduation when Sam, who had been more than a little drunk, had boasted that if she ever met Bester she was certainly going to seduce and bed him within hours. Well, she had put it a bit more crudely than that.  
The vivid memory and the realization that Sam would never have that opportunity unexpectedly crushed Lisa. For the first time in days Sam's death seemed real. Tears streaked from Lisa's eyes. _I can't believe I'm crying in front of Alfred Bester!_  
"I'm so sorry," she stammered.  
"It's all right," Bester said soothingly. "I know you and Ms. Mathews were very close."  
"We were both Cadre Prime," Lisa said, trying to recover. "We've known, I mean we knew each other for as long as I can remember."  
Despite her flustered state, Lisa finally noticed what Bester was holding. "That uniform!" was all she got out before she was rendered speechless.  
"Well, you'll want to have it properly fitted, but it's yours to wear. I know you technically had a couple months left in your internship, but I figured you would be in need of some good news." He smiled proudly. "Having read the reports on your recent actions, I think you more than earned it. If not for you, Mr. Foster would have undoubtedly been killed, and some rather important figures in the 'Underground Railroad' would have escaped justice.  
"Also, I had Samantha Mathews added posthumously to the list of psi cops. I don't doubt that, had she lived, she would have become one best." He smiled consolingly and held out the uniform. Only now, reliving the memory six years later, did it seem to Lisa that Bester's smile did not touch his eyes.  
"Thank you, thank you so much," the much younger Lisa told him. As she took uniform the emotion she felt was too much. Lisa fell back into her chair and began sobbing. Bester put a comforting hand on her shoulder, and at length she recovered. _Sam, I swear I'll do right by your memory,_ she thought. _I'm going to be the best damn psi cop that ever was._  
"I suppose you are here on business," Bester finally said to change the subject.  
"Yes, I am," Lisa told him, and stood. She felt some anger, and it seemed more bearable than the grief. "I want to know why that son of a bitch who killed Sam is still alive. The questioning is done, and he should be disposed of." Lisa did not believe she had left any doubt of who should do the disposing.  
"Yes, that is the preferred procedure for any mundane who kills a telepath," Bester told her. "But in this case, we're going to go with a slight variation of the usual plan. As you know, your prisoner was a very important member of the Underground Railroad. Some of his fellows might just be desperate enough to ignore all common sense and attempt a rescue, especially if we make it look easy.  
"However, we certainly would not want to risk the prisoner escaping if the trap should somehow backfire. So we are going to extract vengeance in a way that will leave him alive, but useless to the opposition. I'd like you to help me with this, actually."  
"Lead the way," Lisa said, putting down the uniform. It was good to feel like a predator instead of prey, which was how the last few days had seemed.  
Together, Collins and Bester entered a large cell nearby. The prisoner was very heavily restrained. "He'll probably attempt to claw his own eyes out after we finish," Bester explained. "In fact, within weeks his brain damage will be irreversible."  
"How much of his mind do I leave intact?" Lisa asked. She was feeling an incredible surge of bloodlust. Thoughts of revenge had been the only thing that had kept her going for the last few days.  
"I'll be handling that end of the procedure," Bester told her. "Actually, it's only a simple matter of getting a memory to rise continuously in his consciousness. He'll relive it every moment for the rest of his natural life. As for what that memory will be..." As if on cue, the door to the cell opened. A psi cop Lisa did not know brought in a restrained woman. Judging from the immediate, tearful reunion that Lisa found not at all touching, the two prisoners were husband and wife. "As I was saying, that memory will be of you killing his wife. It's only fair that his loss be comparable to yours." Bester smiled, and Sam's killer began pleading desperately for the woman's life.  
"But... but the files don't have any mention of this woman being part of the Underground Railroad," Lisa said. "There isn't any evidence at all."  
"I swear she didn't know anything!" the prisoner cried. A quick but invasive scan by Lisa confirmed this as the truth. "Please let her go, I'll tell you anything!"  
"There is not a thing you could tell us that we haven't already taken from your mind," Bester said derisively to the prisoner. "And as for your wife, she aided and abetted you: a felon guilty of smuggling telepaths, as well as the murder of Samantha Mathews."  
Mention of Sam was almost enough to steel Lisa's resolve. She drew her PPG and pointed it at the female prisoner. Six years in the future she would beg the creature controlling her mind to stop, to not let Ta'Wher see.  
The psi cop guarding the woman stepped adroitly aside, although at less than a meter away Lisa was not likely to miss. Both the prisoners screamed and begged for mercy. Lisa hesitated again, and her sidearm wavered slightly. "Mr. Bester..."  
"Go on Lisa, this is very important. We can't show them anymore mercy than they show us." He had become very tense. Lisa realized this was test, to show her commitment to the Corps. Failure would likely have dire consequences. More importantly, she felt she owed it to Sam to continue. Still, she hesitated.  
Then it happened. She sensed very strongly in the room a feeling of relief. From the mundane who had killed Sam, she felt his relief. He thought Collins was not going to be able to kill his wife, and he felt gratitude toward her.  
Nothing could have sickened and revolted Lisa Collins more. She was overwhelmed with rage and lost control. Her PPG fired three times. The female prisoner fell to ground, and Sam's killer screamed for Lisa to please stop. He then screamed for her to please stop again. And again. And again. He began struggling wildly against his restraints.  
The psi cop who had brought in the slain woman now administered a sedative to the remaining prisoner. His screams diminished to hoarse whisper.   
"Excellent," Bester told Collins. "I know the first time can be difficult for some, but you did the right thing."  
Without reply, Lisa left the cell and retrieved her new uniform. She exited the transport, feeling as if she were in a dream. It was only when she returned to privacy of her apartment that she gripped her arms and began shaking uncontrollably.  
  
**2260**  
  
_Well, Ta'Wher,_ the creature 'cast to Lisa and her friend, _I hope I've impressed on you what a complete waste your last few years have been. Trying to reform a murderer such as Ms. Collins is a task for a fool. I might also mention that, as the only one of my victims to survive, killing you will give me a perfect-_  
By this point, the brightness that had clouded Lisa's vision previously had partly faded away. At once it seemed to return, but when the spider stopped 'casting Lisa realized that this time the light in the room actually had increased.  
Then something-  
_(?!?impossible)_  
-entered the room. Lisa immediately rejected the possibility that what she saw was real, taking it for some sort of telepathic representation. Of what, she did not know. Then it spoke, either out loud or in her head.  
_"THEY ARE NOT FOR YOU. YOUR EXPERIMENT IS ENDED."_  
The spider creature squealed in her mind, and its control over Lisa's telepathic faculties vanished. She immediately raised her weapon and fired at the spider. It seemed to absorb the first blast, but subsequent shots from the PPG cracked it open. Lisa kept firing until whatever it had been was nothing more than a smear on the deck. The bright light and the presence it had heralded vanished.  
All the pent up emotion from reliving her most feared and shameful memory came to the forefront. Lisa fell to her knees and began crying. "I'm so sorry... so sorry... what I did... I never wanted you to know, Ta'Wher... please, I'm sorry..." She looked up and was dismayed that Ta'Wher would not meet her gaze.  
"You were correct that the Minbari might still be in danger," he said without inflection. He seemed stunned. "We had best find them and call for medical assistance immediately."  
As distraught as she was, Lisa realized that all this would not finally be over until she was certain the last of Mindblanker's victims were safe. She again stood and returned to her duty.  
  
**Epilogue: 2260**  
  
Captain Sheridan had accompanied the psi cop and her bodyguard on their way to the departure gate. Part of the reason he had gone was to be courteous, but mostly he just wanted the relief of seeing with his own eyes that there would be no psi cops onboard his station anymore.  
"So what will your report to the Psi Corps consist of?" Sheridan asked. Collins would not reveal to him any of the details of what had happened in Brown Section, but with the serial killer stopped and no further loss of life, John was somewhat mollified about being left in the dark.  
"I think it will be my first attempt at creative writing since I left school," she told him. "You don't need to worry, Captain. After my conduct I have just as much reason to hide the truth from the Corps as you do. You know, we may not have developed any trust between each other, but we have the next best thing: mutually assured destruction. We both know things about each other that would be fatal if they came to the wrong people."  
Sheridan nodded. "Although in another way, maybe that's unfortunate. In a different time and place we might have been allies. And I do want to thank you for your help."  
"That's very gracious of you." They were only a short distance from the docking bay now. "Oh, before I go, was there any additional word from Doctor Franklin?"  
"Yes, he told me Lucef has regained consciousness. It seems all the Minbari telepaths will make a full recovery with time."  
"I'm glad to hear that. I'd stop by to visit him, but I get the impression you'd like me off the station as soon as possible."  
Sheridan had to smile a little at that. "Well, that would be a rude way of putting it, but I will say that I've delayed the next incoming transport so you can depart right away."  
"Thank you, Captain. You know, I must admit I am curious as all hell as to just what you people are up to here. But who knows, maybe someday you can tell me."  
"Anything is possible, I suppose. Good-bye, Ms. Collins."  
"Good-bye, Captain."  
The Narn simply bowed to John and followed the psi cop away.  
  
  
Lisa Collins sat alone in the control room of the ship, watching the chaos of hyperspace beyond the viewports. Emotionally, she felt like a wreck. She fretted over what Ta'Wher might be thinking. He had been almost completely silent since the incident in Brown Section. Was it because of what he learned about her, or was it the inexplicable, impossible things they had seen? There was a time once when having a question about a mundane would mean scanning him, but now going into Ta'Wher's mind without permission seemed like it would be just as terrible a betrayal as if she were to shoot him dead.   
She wondered if he would finally leave her and try to return to his homeworld? Beyond how dangerous that would be for him, Lisa was disturbed by the thought of being truly alone again, like she had been after she had lost Sam.  
Sam... It was hard to believe, but Lisa had given her once best friend hardly a thought during most of the intervening years between now and her death. Lisa had not even mentioned her to Ta'Wher. After the terrible thing she had done to avenge Sam's death, she had just pushed it all away and refused to think about it. She realized now that if she had confessed what had happened to Ta'Wher herself instead of hiding it for so long, she would not have jeopardized her friendship so badly. Or perhaps he would have been repelled either way; there was no way to know for sure.  
But she had realized there was one thing she had to do. Lisa moved over to the communications station and prepared to dictate a message. "This message is to the Beta Colony Prison Facility, its subject heading should read 'Permission for Disposal.' Attach my applicable security codes and prepare for high level encryption." After a few moments the computer replied that it was ready. "Begin message: To Whom It May Concern... Regarding a prisoner in your facility, serial number..." It only took a few moments for Lisa to remember and repeat the number representing the mundane she had helped lock into a torturous existence six years ago. "...By the now the prisoner's brain damage has long since passed beyond anything that is reversible, and there is no possibility of extracting additional data. As I am aware that you are under a great deal of budgetary pressure, I hereby release you to dispose of the prisoner at your earliest convenience. End message and insert standard closing."  
"Text message prepared," the computer told her.  
At least that poor bastard, or what little was left of him, would finally be able to find an end to suffering. Lisa almost wished for such a release herself. "Send to Beta Colony Prison Facility."  
"Sending."  
Lisa realized that she could not continue on like this much longer. Someday soon she would have to leave the Psi Corps, or die in the attempt. Lisa was so frightened by the prospect of life outside the Corps that she was not even sure which outcome was more desirable. All she knew for certain is that from that point on, she would be nothing but a traitor.  



End file.
